ERIC Number: EJ784781
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008-Feb
Pages: 19
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0096-3445
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
How Communication Goals Determine when Audience Tuning Biases Memory
Echterhoff, Gerald; Higgins, E. Tory; Kopietz, Rene; Groll, Stephan
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, v137 n1 p3-21 Feb 2008
After tuning their message to suit their audience's attitude, communicators' own memories for the original information (e.g., a target person's behaviors) often reflect the biased view expressed in their message--producing an audience-congruent memory bias. Exploring the motivational circumstances of message production, the authors investigated whether this bias depends on the goals driving audience tuning. In 4 experiments, the memory bias was found to a greater extent when audience tuning served the creation of a shared reality than when it served alternative, nonshared reality goals (being polite toward a stigmatized-group audience; obtaining incentives; being entertaining; complying with a blatant demand). In addition, the authors found that these effects were mediated by the epistemic trust in the audience-congruent view but not by the rehearsal or accurate retrieval of the original input information, the ability to discriminate between the original and the message information, or a contrast away from extremely tuned messages. The central role of epistemic trust, a measure of the communicators' experience of shared reality, was supported in meta-analyses across the experiments.
Descriptors: Trust (Psychology), Audiences, Memory, Experiments, Meta Analysis, Attitudes, Discrimination Learning
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org/publications
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A