Information Processing and the Stability of Political Opinions

• In Event: Poster Session: Current and Classical Topics in Political Psychology & State Politics and Policy
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Current and Classical Topics in Political Psychology

Abstract

Informational treatments contained in survey experiments are often critiqued on the basis that they lack external validity, which suggests that they may cause real but very temporary attitude change. While previous research has indicated that some treatments maintain their effects over time, little is understood about how subjects' information processing impacts the longevity and decay of these effects. In this study, I present a survey experiment designed to assess such attitudinal evolution. I hypothesize that attitudes formed through systematic processing will lead to more durable and stable attitudes over time.

Author

• Axel Déry, University of Western Ontario