Adjustment of attitude communications for contrasts by extreme audiences.

Abstract

Conducted 4 experiments to study shifts in communications of attitude when Ss were instructed to communicate accurately their opinions to extreme audiences. In the 1st experiment, 26 moderates on the Vietnam war were asked to communicate their position to both hawks and doves; communications were significantly displaced toward the audiences. Exp II replicated this effect with a between-Ss design (96 Ss) with the issue of political liberalism-conservatism. Ss were not preselected for initial position. In Exp III, 30 Ss communicated their political position to 1 extreme audience. Expected audience perception was then assessed when (a) the communication only was shown to the opposite extreme, (b) both the communication and the original audience were shown to the opposite extreme, and (c) the original audience received the communication. Expected perception was virtually identical under (b) and (c). In Exp IV, 30 Ss were shown a communication to an extreme audience. Results indicate that perceived communicator position was significantly "corrected" away from the position of the extreme audience. It is concluded that such shifts occur through context effects on the meaning to the communicator of his attitude expressions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)