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Mortality salience effects on selective exposure and web browsing behavior.
Robert G Magee1, Bartosz W Wojdynski
1Department of Communication, Virginia Tech, 108 Shanks Hall-0311, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA. rgmagee@vt.edu
Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking
|October 20, 2012
Summary
Individuals' issue-related attitudes guide website browsing, but only when mortality is not a concern. Mortality reminders activate defense mechanisms, altering selective exposure to online content.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Media Psychology
- Human-Computer Interaction
Background:
- Selective exposure theory posits that individuals prefer information aligning with their existing attitudes.
- Online environments offer vast content, making selective exposure a critical behavior to understand.
- Previous research has not fully explored situational factors, like mortality salience, influencing online selective exposure.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how issue-related attitudes influence selective website browsing behavior.
- To examine the moderating role of mortality salience on the relationship between attitudes and online selective exposure.
- To explore the interplay of dispositional and situational factors in online information seeking.
Main Methods:
- An experiment with 215 participants was conducted.
- Participants' issue-related attitudes and website browsing behavior were measured.
- A mortality salience induction was used to manipulate situational factors, alongside a control condition.
Main Results:
- In the absence of mortality salience, issue-related attitudes predicted website browsing behavior.
- Under mortality salience, this attitude-behavior link disappeared, indicating altered selective exposure.
- Response latencies revealed attitude accessibility differences between conditions, suggesting cognitive processing changes.
Conclusions:
- Mortality reminders can override dispositional attitudes in guiding selective online exposure.
- Situational factors significantly influence how individuals engage with online content.
- Future research should incorporate behavioral and process measures alongside self-reports for a comprehensive understanding.
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