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The effects of two forms of decision reappraisal on the perception of pertinent arguments
Author(s) -
McLachlan Angus
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8309.1986.tb00711.x
Subject(s) - psychology , social psychology , perception , dilemma , relevance (law) , set (abstract data type) , interpretation (philosophy) , decision process , attitude , action (physics) , cognitive psychology , epistemology , linguistics , philosophy , physics , process management , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , political science , computer science , law , business , programming language
The experiment examined a central assumption of the informational influence explanation of group polarization: that arguments have inherent qualities which elicit from subjects shared and unchanging evaluations. Subjects were required to make binary decisions either on choice dilemma (CD) items or on attitude items and then assess the relevance of two comprehensive sets of arguments to that decision. On each item, one set of arguments favoured one course of action (CD items) or pole (attitude items) and the second set, the alternative course or pole. Subjects then either reconsidered their decision, or reconsidered it and wrote a passage justifying their current decision, and then reassessed the relevance of the arguments. It was found that after their initial decision, subjects discriminated significantly more clearly between the opposing sets of arguments on the attitude items compared with those on the CD items. Secondly, the trend to accentuate this perceived difference following decision reappraisal was significantly greater when subjects had to justify their decision. Thirdly, this accentuation process was more marked on the CD items than on the attitude items irrespective of the form of decision reappraisal. The informational influence explanation appeared incapable of explaining these results and an alternative interpretation based on social identity theory is offered.