ABSTRACT
Much research on attitudinal effects on the processing of new information was guided by the principle of cognitive consistency (see also chapters 3 and 8). A basic tenet characterising this approach is that people attempt to maintain consistency of their cognitive structure by seeking out new information in line with their existing attitudes, and screening out new information that might challenge their attitudes (Festinger, 1957, 1964). This should result in what has been termed
attitudinal selectivity effects at several stages of processing, including attention, elaboration and memory.
