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Cited by 228Death Anxiety and Social ExclusionSocial and Intergroup PsychologyMedia Influence and Politics

Threat, authoritarianism, and selective exposure to information

Lavine, Howard, Lodge, Milton, Freitas, Kate·2005·Political Psychology
DOI 10.1111/j.1467-9221.2005.00416.x
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Abstract

We examined the hypothesis that threat alters the cognitive strategies used by high authoritarians in seeking out new political information from the environment. In a laboratory experiment, threat was manipulated through a “mortality salience” manipulation used in research on terror management theory ( Pyszczynski, Solomon & Greenberg, 2003 ). Subjects (N = 92) were then invited to read one of three editorial articles on the topic of capital punishment. We found that in the absence of threat, both low and high authoritarians were responsive to salient norms of evenhandedness in information selection, preferring exposure to a two‐sided article that presents the merits of both sides of an issue to an article that selectively touts the benefits of the pro or con side of the issue. However, in the presence of threat, high but not low authoritarians became significantly more interested in exposure to an article containing uniformly pro‐attitudinal arguments, and significantly less interested in a balanced, two‐sided article. Finally, a path analysis indicated that selective exposure to attitude‐congruent information led to more internally consistent policy attitudes and inhibited attitude change. Discussion focuses on the role of threat in conditioning the cognitive and attitudinal effects of authoritarianism.

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  • Individuals with a lower threshold for tolerating uncertainty tend to be more rigid and closed-minded in their worldviews, values, and attitudes, especially when uncertainty is explicitly linked with threat.

    “Individuals with a lower threshold for tolerating uncertainty tend to be more rigid and closed-minded in their worldviews, values, and attitudes [45,153], especially when uncertainty is explicitly linked with threat [154,155].”

    From Impact of Media-Induced Uncertainty on Mental Health: Narrative-Based Perspective. (2025) · cites this paper as [154]

  • Results suggest that individual-level authoritarianism shapes political systems, rather than political systems shaping individual attitudes.

    “Results suggest that, consistent with some lines of speculation [56], individual-level authoritarianism shapes political systems, rather than political systems shaping individual attitudes (although, of course, neither causal path necessarily operates at the exclusion of the other).”

    From Pathogens and Politics: Further Evidence That Parasite Prevalence Predicts Authoritarianism (2013) · cites this paper as [56]

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Authors
Lavine, H., Lodge, M., & Freitas, K.
Affiliations
Stony Brook University (US)
Venue
Political Psychology
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2005-03-09
Volume
26
Issue
2
Pages
219-244
ISSN
  • 0162-895X (ISSN-L)
  • 1467-9221
DOI
10.1111/j.1467-9221.2005.00416.x
OpenAlex
W2041413575
Cited by
227
References
86
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 27 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 13
FWCI
6.18
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
Political Psychology (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Media Influence and Politics
Keywords
authoritarianism, threats, selective exposure, information seeking, mortality salience, terror management theory, death penalty, attitude consistency, attitude change

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