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Resistance to Persuasion and Memory for Attitude-Congruent and Attitude-Incongruent Information in Political Advertisements

Across three studies, we tested competing hypotheses about how individual differences in social vigilantism and need for cognition relate to levels of attitude change, intentions to resist attitude change, and memory for political advertisements concerning a highly polarized issue. In Experiments 1 and 2, we examined participants’ intentions to use resistance strategies to preserve their pre-existing attitudes about abortion, by either engaging against opposing opinions or disengaging from them. In Experiment 3, we examined participants’ memory for information about both sides of the controversy presented in political advertisements. Our results suggest higher levels of social vigilantism are related to greater intentions to counterargue and better memory for attitude incongruent information. These findings extend our understanding of individual differences in how people process and respond to controversial social and political discourse.