Michel Tuan Pham

Does Greater Amount of Information Always Bolster Attitudinal Resistance?

Coauthor(s): A. Muthukirishnan, Anat Keinan.

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Abstract:
Previous research suggests that attitudinal resistance to information that challenges a prior evaluation increases with the amount of information underlying the prior evaluation. We revisit this proposition in a context in which a set of important claims about a target brand are presented either alone—a lower amount of "isolated"? information—or along with other favorable, but less important claims— a higher amount of "embedded" information. Results from two experiments show that when the challenge occurs immediately after the initial evaluation, a greater amount of "embedded"? initial information does produce greater attitudinal resistance. However, when the challenge occurs after a delay, a lesser amount of "isolated"? information produces greater attitudinal resistance. The findings qualify previous assumptions about the role of prior information in attitudinal resistance, and support a constructive view of judgment revision and attitudinal resistance.

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