Token Reinforcement and Selective Exposure to Persuasion

An attempt was made to shape the listening preferences of 54 male and female undergraduates for two persuasive messages by presenting them with token reinforcers for "correct" choices of opposing arguments during a visual presentation series. Although most Ss reported awareness of the reinforcement contingency during the token-reward phase of the experiment, only those who received tokens for choosing the positive argument were effectively conditioned. The reinforcement manipulation did not affect preferences for the negative arguments. Although unaware that they were doing so, the Ss listened longer to a message which contained elements of the previously reinforced arguments as compared with time spent on the same message by nonreinforced controls. It is concluded that reinforcement procedures can, under some conditions, effectively determine selective exposure to persuasive messages.