Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
1-2011
Abstract
The current research explored the effect of anger on hypothesis confirmation the propensity to seek information that confirms rather than disconfirms one's opinion. We argued that the moving against action tendency associated with anger leads angry individuals to seek out more disconfirming information than sad individuals, attenuating the confirmation bias. We tested this hypothesis in two studies of experimentally primed anger and sadness on the selective exposure to hypothesis confirming and disconfirming information. In Study 1, participants in the angry condition were more likely to choose disconfirming information than those in the sad or neutral condition when given the opportunity to read more about a social debate, and reading the disconfirming information affected their subsequent attitude. Study 2 measured participants' opinions and information selection about the 2008 US Presidential Election and their desire to "move against" a person or object. Participants in the angry condition reported a greater tendency to oppose a person or object, which resulted in the attenuation of the confirmation bias.
Keywords
Anger, Action tendency, Selective information, Confirmation bias, Argumentative
Discipline
Cognition and Perception | Psychology
Research Areas
Psychology
Publication
Cognition and Emotion
Volume
25
Issue
1
First Page
10
Last Page
21
ISSN
0269-9931
Identifier
10.1080/02699930903534105
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Citation
YOUNG, Maia J., TIEDENS, Larissa Z., JUNG, Heajung, & TSAI, Ming-Hong.(2011). Mad enough to see the other side: Anger and the search for disconfirming information. Cognition and Emotion, 25(1), 10-21.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2018
Copyright Owner and License
Publisher
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930903534105