When Two Is Better Than One – Product Recommendation with Dual Information Processing Strategies

Previous work has shown that compared to passive perceivers who view preselected information about target persons, active perceivers are less confident in their impressions, do not show increased confidence with increased amounts of information, and like targets less. The authors now explain these findings, postulating that perceivers without control over the amount of information they receive should be motivated to form impressions earlier, altering their information-processing strategies. Study 1 predicted and found that content-only active perceivers who control the content, but not the amount, of information show the same positive relationship between confidence and amount of information as passive perceivers, as well as the same reading-time patterns and level of liking. Study 2 used clearly valenced target stimuli and found support for the hypothesis that passive perceivers form more extreme early impressions, leading to greater liking when early information is positive but less liking when it is negative.

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Beliefs Influence Information Processing Strategies: Declarative and Experiential Information in Risk Assessment

Social Cognition ◽

10.1521/soco.1999.17.1.1 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 1-18 ◽

Cited By ~ 32

Author(s):

Carla E. Grayson ◽

Norbert Schwarz

Keyword(s):

Risk Assessment ◽

Information Processing ◽

Processing Strategies

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Entitlement Makes People Ignorant, Egocentric, and Mean

Enraged, Rattled, and Wronged ◽

10.1093/oso/9780197578438.003.0006 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 145-175

Author(s):

Kristin J. Anderson

Keyword(s):

Information Processing ◽

Sexual Violence ◽

People Of Color ◽

Dominant Group ◽

Group Members ◽

Better Than

This chapter explores the ways in which entitlement facilitates ignorance, egocentrism, and inconsiderateness. People with power tend to engage in shoddy information processing. Compared to those who are marginalized, dominant group members think in shortcuts. Power emboldens people to be careless about repercussions, at least compared to those without power. Power holders do not feel compelled to view things from another person’s perspective and they do not feel obliged to know much about people with less power. For marginalized people, their very lives depend on understanding the idiosyncrasies of power holders and they understand these dynamics much better than powerful people. Power entitles people to conveniently and self-servingly assume they know more than they actually do when it comes to telling women and people of color how to think about sexism and racism (e.g., mansplaining and whitesplaining). At the same time, power entitles people to claim they know less than they actually do when they are called to account for sexual violence.

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