Motivated Information Search
1
Motivated Information Search and Candidate Evaluations:
On-Line Versus Memory-Based Process Models
The paper will report the results of a study that analyzes how (potential) voters form candidate
evaluations in a dynamic campaign environment. We analyze the process by which initial candidate
preference guides a subsequent search and selection of campaign information; how recipients of this
information integrate it in an on-line affective tally; and/or how they store and retrieve the information
from memory to form a final candidate preference and candidate evaluations. The study draws on several
theories and addresses issues that have received considerable attention in recent years.
The cognitive information processing framework (Lang, 2000) has paid increasing attention to
motivated information processing. The central idea is that recipients of information are not just passive
receivers of information but are actively engaged in processing information. Preexisting attitudes and
preferences, as well as processing goals, affect the selection, perception and acceptance of messages
(Baumeister & Newman, 1994; Biek, Wood, & Chaiken, 1996; Ditto & Lopez, 1992; Kunda, 1990;
Lodge & Taber, 2000). The research cited above stresses the important role of affect in information
processing, exemplified in concepts such as “hot cognition” and on-line information processing (the
sequential updating of evaluative tallies).
Two types of process models are used to explain the formation of candidate evaluations (Lavine,
2002). The on-line process assumes that voters, once they have formed an initial impression of the
candidates, incrementally update a running, affective tally for each candidate whenever they encounter
information about the candidate (anchoring-and-adjustment heuristic). While the running affective tally is
stored and is highly accessible in memory, the memory for the content of the information usually decays
quickly. The memory-based process, on the other hand, assumes that voters only form a candidate
evaluation when asked for it. Only then they start searching their memory for relevant information and
integrate their thoughts into an overall evaluation. Our first research question (RQ1) is to determine which
of the two processes postulated above is a better predictor of final candidate evaluations.
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