What is selective exposure

This text is a review of the early research into selective exposure, focusing on exposure to mass communication. Katz lists studies outside cognitive dissonance theory, such as those on voting behavior. In contrast to other authors in the anthology, he finds considerable support for selective exposure theory. Zillmann, Dolf, and Jennings Bryant, eds.

Selective exposure to communication. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. This anthology, directed toward both undergraduate and graduate students, focuses on selective exposure processes in the realm of entertainment. The contributions to this volume are from both psychology and communication departments and deal mainly with exposure to television programs. Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login. Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions.

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Sign in with your library card Please enter your library card number. Related Articles Expand or collapse the "related articles" section about About Related Articles close popup. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Introduction The basic assumption in the study of selective exposure is that people expose themselves to external stimuli in a selective way.

General Overviews Only a few textbooks and anthologies have focused exclusively on selective exposure, and most overviews have been published in academic journals. How to Subscribe Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. Jump to Other Articles:. Festinger is a social psychologist,best known for his theory of cognitive dissonance. His influential work helped change the focus of psychological research from behavioral psychology to social psychology, and he stressed the importance of lab experiments in ensuring reliable results.

A preeminent scholar on the effects of media consumption on behavior, Dr. Klapper served as the director of social research at CBS for over two decades. It helps us avoid cognitive dissonance, reducing the feelings of anxiety or panic that often come with it.

However, the consequences of selective exposure are rarely good. People who distrust medical experts and authorities selectively expose themselves to conspiracy theories that render them even more skeptical. People who do trust medical experts and authorities selectively expose themselves to information that renders them incapable of conversing with—and convincing—the vaccine-hesitant.

This problem is only exacerbated by the fact that modern social media allows us to curate where we get our information, and uses algorithms that feed us information with which we already agree. Beyond creating a more polarized world, selective exposure can exacerbate negative feelings of the world through declinism. Declinism is when someone views the past in an unrealistically optimistic light, and the present or future in an unrealistically bleak light.

When declinism makes us think things are only going to get worse, we avoid information that would conflict with that idea. Selective exposure exacerbates that: we end up seeking information that makes it seem like things will get worse while making us avoid the only thing that would help—evidence to the contrary. Learning how to make yourself reasonably uncomfortable and expose yourself to reputable information from the opposing viewpoint will help create an environment where we can talk to each other.

For example, we can learn how to bring our friends out of declinism, or speak to our relatives about their stance on veganism and convince them to follow some vegan accounts. At the very least, coming across conflicting information will be educational, and it might further strengthen—or change— your beliefs. As described in the history section, there has been a reemergence of studies that focus on selective exposure theory as insights on media consumption have become more desirable with the Internet and social media.

Like the past, though, some research has continued to debate the existence of selective exposure theory. A few decades ago, investigators thought that the mixed results were due to experimental errors, but even with the improved methodology of today, findings are still not conclusive.

Another study from produced evidence that people pay more attention to information that is new, deviant, and inconsistent with their beliefs. These are just two studies that question the presence and benefits of selective exposure, even though many articles as mentioned throughout this article support its existence.

Further research needs to be done to understand why, where, and how it occurs. As with anything else, getting a second opinion is always essential. One reason is that your first psychiatrist may be exhibiting signs of selective exposure. This phenomenon has been well-documented by researchers.

The findings can be summed up like this: firstly, selective exposure drives how some doctors and medical students search for information; and secondly, selective exposure leads to poorer diagnostic accuracy. While the researchers note that educators should create more training to reduce bias, these results stress the importance of patients getting a second opinion.

As it turns out,us doctors are susceptible to the same behavioral tendencies as the rest of us. William Hart and his team investigated the behavior of Republicans and Democrats during the Presidential election. In particular, they compared how voters from different parties responded to information from a left-leaning channel CNN versus a right-leaning channel Fox News.

Their investigation showed that Republicans were 1. This suggests that selective exposure can drive polarization not just between people from different parties. It can also drive polarization between people from the same party. Why Does Gender Bias Exist? It also gives some suggestions on how to avoid fake news. Selective exposure, however, makes this difficult, since we end up exposing ourselves to information that confirms what we think we know.

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