Selective
Exposure To Information
Festinger declares that dissonance is unpleasant, and that it
will encourages us to change our cognitions in order to reduce
it. Another implication is that people may attempt to avoid
situations that are likely to create dissonance. Thus,
Dissonance Theory predicts that people will try to avoid
exposure to information that they suspect may arose dissonance
-- and they may seek out information that is consonant, or
consistent, with their attitudes. Research has found that at
times people seem to avoid potentially dissonant information (Cotton &
Hieser, 1980; Olson &
Zanna, 1979). That is,
we are selective about the information to which we expose
ourselves. We have a tendency to seek out consonant
information and avoid dissonant information.
However, dissonance is only one factor among many that
influences our exposure to information. For example, curiosity
may lead some people to seek out information that disagrees
with their current beliefs and attitudes. Second, if we
believe that certain information is likely to be useful to us,
we may decide to acquire it rather than avoid it (Freedman,
1965). Third, there may be a fairness norm that operates in
some situations (like trials), encouraging us to seek out
relevant information regardless of whether it is consistent
with our current beliefs. Thus, a desire to avoid dissonance
may sometimes encourage us to be selective about the
information we seek, but other factors mean that in other
situations we may not try to avoid dissonant information.
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