Context effects in political judgement: assimilation and contrast as a function of categorization processes

✍ Scribed by Herbert Bless; Norbert Schwarz

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 171 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0046-2772
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-0992(199803/04)28:2<159::aid-ejsp860>3.0.co;2-4

✦ Synopsis

Two experiments demonstrate that thinking about a given politician may result in assimilation as well as contrast eects in evolutions of the politician's party. In two experiments, assimilation eects were observed when an experimental categorization task elicited the inclusion of a highly respected politician in the representation formed of his party, whereas contrast eects were observed when the categorization task elicited his exclusion from the representation, with the control group falling in between. Hence, the same information may elicit assimilation as well as contrast eects, depending on its use in mental construal.