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Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
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Attitudinal Ambivalence and Message-Based Persuasion: Motivated Processing of Proattitudinal Information and Avoidance of Counterattitudinal Information

Jason K. Clark

Indiana University, clarkjk{at}indiana.edu

Duane T. Wegener

Purdue University, wegener{at}psych.purdue.edu

Leandre R. Fabrigar

Queen's University

Attitudinal ambivalence has been found to increase processing of attitude-relevant information. In this research, the authors suggest that ambivalence can also create the opposite effect: avoidance of thinking about persuasive messages. If processing is intended to reduce experienced ambivalence, then ambivalent people should increase processing of information perceived as proattitudinal (agreeable) and able to decrease ambivalence. However, ambivalence should also lead people to avoid processing of counterattitudinal (disagreeable) information that threatens to increase ambivalence. Three studies provide evidence consistent with this proposal. When participants were relatively ambivalent, they processed messages to a greater extent when the messages were proattitudinal rather than counterattitudinal. However, when participants were relatively unambivalent, they processed messages more when the messages were counterattitudinal rather than proattitudinal. In addition, ambivalent participants perceived proattitudinal messages as more likely than counterattitudinal messages to reduce ambivalence, and these perceptions accounted for message position effects on amount of processing.

Key Words: attitudinal ambivalence • information processing • message discrepancy • message position • message processing • persuasion

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 34, No. 4, 565-577 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0146167207312527
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F. van Harreveld, J. van der Pligt, and Y. N. de Liver
The Agony of Ambivalence and Ways to Resolve It: Introducing the MAID Model
Personality and Social Psychology Review, February 1, 2009; 13(1): 45 - 61.
[Abstract] [PDF]