Selective Exposure as a Function of Dogmatism and Incentive

It was hypothesized that Ss with high scores on Rokeach's Dogmatism Scale would be less willing than low scorers to read material incongruent with their beliefs but that instructions that their beliefs would be challenged would lead Ss to read incongruent material. Fifty-six college students, predominantly male, studying engineering, who had to participate in a liberal studies program, were presented with a questionnaire to elicit their beliefs. The 48 Ss who were opposed to the program were then given the opportunity to select articles to read, related to the program. Half of the Ss were told they would later be called to an interview to enlarge on their opinion. The results indicated that incentive did not have a significant influence on the discrepancy between opinion and the material selected, but high dogmatism Ss were significantly (p < .05) less likely to choose discrepant material than were low dogmatism Ss.