ARE READING AND INFORMATION PROCESSING AFFECTED BY EXISTING POLITICAL BIASES?

Abstract

Much research has been devoted to the process of persuasion and how beliefs are changed. Among the research, there are models that aim to explain how existing beliefs affect the processing of new information. This study investigated the information processing when reading pro-attitudinal and counter-attitudinal messages. The analysis was based on the Discrepancy Motives Model and, specifically, it used eye tracking to investigate reading and processing time for pro- and counter-attitudinal political arguments and how those are affected by participant’s prior beliefs and political sophistication. The relationship between participant beliefs and argument type was found to have no significant effect on the eye tracking measures of information processing: reading duration, fixation duration, or fixation count. The results are discussed in the context of the model and the implications for research of this nature.