Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2023, Vol. 46 ›› Issue (3): 668-676.

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From “Belief-Consistency” to “Information-Selection”: the moderation of Credibility and the Mediation of Positive Emotion

Lin Wenyi, Li Bingbing, Li Guangzheng   

  1. (School of Education Science, Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, 221116)
  • Received:2020-09-12 Revised:2021-07-16 Online:2023-05-20 Published:2023-05-20

从信念一致性到信息选择:可信度的中介作用和积极情绪的调节作用

林文毅,李兵兵,李广政   

  1. (江苏师范大学教育科学学院,徐州,221116)
  • 通讯作者: 林文毅

Abstract: In the information age, people's stand tends to be extreme rather than moderate, one of the main reasons is selective exposure. Selective exposure means that individuals choose to be exposed to the information environment with belief-consistency, which is manifested in the fact that individuals are more willing to choose information with belief-consistency for reading, rather than information that challenges the original beliefs. In the Internet era, people choose information more freely and conveniently, which enlarges the harm of selective exposure. Therefore, the theoretical explanation of selective exposure has become the focus of attention of researchers. On this topic, there still is a theoretical dispute between the theory of evaluation bias and the theory of cognitive dissonance. In order to explore the relationship between evaluation bias and selective exposure, and to verify the possible regulatory effect of emotion on both, this study took "mobile phone radiation and health" as the theme, compiled eight related web page links and presented them in the form of real search context. First of all, 147 college students' belief-consistency was measured. After reading the web links, the subjects were asked to evaluate their credibility, positive and negative emotions, and further information selection. Through the moderated mediating effect, the data were statistically analyzed in order to obtain the overall model among belief consistency, credibility evaluation, emotion and information selection. Data analysis showed that the belief-consistency of college students indirectly affected information selection through the complete mediating effect of credibility, while positive emotion plays a moderating role in the influence path of credibility information selection, forming a moderated mediated model. The results showed that there was a completion mediation effect between belief-consistency, credibility and information selection, that is to say, evaluation bias is the direct cause of selective exposure. Individuals do not blindly choose information, and credibility evaluation of information is the premise of information selection. Therefore, evaluation bias theory rather than cognitive dissonance theory is a more direct theoretical explanation of selective exposure. Meanwhile, positive emotion moderates the relationship between credibility and information selection. Under the condition of high positive emotion intervention, individuals may still choose the information even if their evaluation of the reliability of the current web link is not strong. With the help of cognitive dual processing model, it can be explained that high positive emotion plays a more significant role in heuristic processing. In future research, it is feasible to explore the causes of evaluation bias and distinguish different mechanisms of cognitive emotion and thematic emotion.

Key words: belief-consistency, credibility, selective exposure, evaluation bias, positive emotion

摘要: 为探查个体对于网络信息选择性暴露的成因及可能的影响因素,本研究在测量大学生被试的信念一致性后,使用真实搜索情境中的网页链接作为阅读材料,要求347名认为手机辐射有害健康的大学生被试评价相关网页链接的可信度、引发的积极情绪和消极情绪,以及选择网页链接进行详细阅读的意愿。数据分析显示,大学生被试的信念一致性通过可信度的完全中介作用间接影响信息选择,而积极情绪则对于可信度-信息选择的影响路径起着调节作用,构成了有调节的中介效应模型。研究结果表明评价偏误可能是选择性暴露的主要原因,而积极情绪则能够调节评价偏误对于选择性暴露的影响。

关键词: 信念一致性, 可信度, 评价偏误, 选择性暴露, 积极情绪