Monkey see, monkey do: The effect of social influence on selective-exposure bias

Selective-exposure bias refers to the tendency to predominantly seek out attitude-consistent information and avoid attitude-inconsistent information. Although researchers have proposed and tested several underlying psychological factors that might contribute to this tendency, the potential role of social influence has not been addressed. In the present research, we address this issue. In four experiments (total N=645), participants' selective-exposure bias was significantly reduced when the bias was portrayed as non-normative (vs. normative). In Experiment 4, we obtained evidence for the possibility that this social-norm manipulation could result in effects on attitudes through information selection. Overall, this research contributes novel evidence for the effect of social influence on selective-exposure bias.