Communication Modality and Biased Processing: A Study on the Occasion of the German 2002 Election TV Debate
Titel:
Communication Modality and Biased Processing: A Study on the Occasion of the German 2002 Election TV Debate
Auteur:
Ziegler, Rene Arnold, Friederike Diehl, Michael
Verschenen in:
Basic and applied social psychology
Paginering:
Jaargang 29 (2007) nr. 2 pagina's 175-184
Jaar:
2007-05-03
Inhoud:
Participants were presented with a segment of the 2002 Schroeder-Stoiber TV debate, in which the two candidates running for the post of German Chancellor argued for clearly different positions. Prior to presentation of the segment in either audiovisual, audio, or written modality, participants' politician preference was measured. Position agreement and valence of thoughts about the candidates' specific statements were found to be affected by politician preference in all three modalities. However, as shown by a modality by preference interaction, the effect of politician preference on position agreement was stronger in audio and audiovisual modalities than in the written modality. Similar interactions were found regarding the valence of thoughts broadly related to the issue discussed as well as regarding the valence of thoughts related to the two candidates themselves. Taken together with further path analyses, these findings are interpreted as showing biased processing across modalities, with the broadcast modalities intensifying this bias due to the heightened salience of nonverbal politician-related cues.