Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Why Motivations Matter: Information Processing Goals and Their Implications for Selective Exposure to Political Information

最近有关政治传播的文献表明，美国新闻消费者倾向于寻找政治信息，以证实先前的信念。但是，这些行为背后的动机，以及这些动机随后可能对接触政治信息的后果产生什么影响，还不太清楚。这个项目的目标是通过将信息处理目标的概念--媒体消费者希望在其信息寻求行为中实现的目标--应用于政治媒体选择性现象，从而促进对这些领域的理解。这提出了两个问题：1)信息处理目标对公民如何选择政治信息源有何影响？2)这些目标在哪些方面缓和了政治信息暴露和政治态度之间的关系？为此，我们提出了一种包括原始调查数据收集和调查实验在内的多方面研究方法，旨在确定信息处理目标对政治媒体偏好的现实后果，以及关于政治媒体报道对公众舆论和政治容忍的影响的信息处理目标的因果影响。该项目的学术价值来自十年的研究，该研究发现，选择性暴露--对证实先前态度的信息的偏好和对挑战现有信念的信息的厌恶--是对美国民主健康的严重威胁。虽然这样的说法并非没有一些经验支持，但这些研究在很大程度上是在一种理论范式下运作的，该范式将所有形式的政治信息暴露视为纯粹出于避免可能挑战现有世界观的信息的内在愿望。然而，最近的心理学研究表明，这种方法过于简单化，因为它忽略了影响信息偏好的许多其他动机，以及随后这些因素在决定新信息在政治判断形成中的处理方式方面的作用。因此，这项研究的智力贡献包括测试另一种理解公民政治媒体习惯的理论方法，以信息处理目标的形式解释动机。这个项目的结果最终应该会导致对为什么个人更喜欢他们所做的信息来源以及这种信息寻求行为可能产生的后果(即两极分化或缓和)的更微妙的理解。除了对公民寻求政治信息习惯的相关性和后果有更好的学术理解外，这项研究还应该就公民参与政治信息环境对民主社会的后果产生更广泛的影响。正如许多学者所宣称的那样，转向选择性接触被认为是态度两极分化和不宽容加剧的表现。此外，这些学者中的许多人认为，解决这种走向极端的螺旋式增长的办法是促进信息寻求行为的多样性。然而，这项研究的预期结果表明，每一种说法都取决于人们希望在政治媒体习惯中实现的目标。换句话说，如果实证分析支持信息处理目标的理论重要性，那么改善民主社会必须超越关于哪种类型的政治信息寻求策略是最好的规范性主张，而是专注于促进人们如何理解政治信息的更多深思熟虑的心态，无论是通过公民培训还是为人们对政治的态度培养更多的责任感。

Recent literature in political communication has demonstrated the proclivity of the American news consumer to seek out political information that serves to confirm prior beliefs. But, the motivations that underlie these behaviors, as well as what impacts these motivations may subsequently have on the consequences of exposure to political information, are less clear. The objective of this project is to contribute to understanding in these areas by applying the concept of information-processing goals - the objectives that the media consumer wishes to accomplish in their information-seeking behaviors - to the phenomena of political media selectivity. This poses two questions: 1) How are information-processing goals influential in how citizens choose political information sources? and, 2) In what ways do these goals moderate the relationship between political information exposure and political attitudes? To this end, a multi-faceted research approach involving original survey data collection and survey experimentation is proposed in an effort to determine both the real-world consequences of information-processing goals on political media preferences and the causal implications of information-processing goals regarding the effect of political media exposure on public opinion and political tolerance.The intellectual merit of this project stems from a decade of research that has identified selective exposure - the preference for information that affirms prior attitudes and the aversion towards information that challenges existing beliefs - as a serious threat to the health of American democracy. While such claims are not without some empirical support, these studies largely operate under a theoretical paradigm that treats all forms of political information exposure as being solely motivated by the innate desire to avoid information that may challenge existing worldviews. However, recent psychological research has suggested that such an approach is simplistic as it neglects to account for a number of other motivations that influence information preferences and subsequently the role of these factors in dictating how new information is processed in the formation of political judgments. Hence, the intellectual contribution of this study involves testing an alternative theoretical approach toward understanding citizens' political media habits, accounting for motivations in the form of information-processing goals. The results of this project should ultimately result in a more nuanced understanding of why individuals prefer the information sources that they do as well as what consequences (i.e. polarization or moderation) can be expected of such information-seeking behaviors. Beyond an improved academic understanding of the correlates and consequences of citizens' political information-seeking habits, this study should also yield broader impacts regarding the consequences for democratic society of citizens' engagement with the political information environment. As numerous scholars have proclaimed, a shift towards selective exposure is thought to manifest increased attitude polarization and intolerance. Further, many of these same scholars argue that the solution to this spiral towards extremity is the promotion of diversity in information-seeking behavior. The expected outcomes of this study, however, would suggest that each of these claims is conditional on the objectives that people wish to accomplish in their political media habits. In other words, if the empirical analysis supports the theoretical importance of information-processing goals, improving democratic society must go beyond making normative claims about which types of political information-seeking strategies are best and instead focus on the promotion of more deliberative mindsets in how people make sense of political information, either through citizenship training or fostering more accountability for the attitudes that people hold about politics.