CONFIDENCE IN BELIEFS ABOUT SOCIAL-GROUPS AS AN OUTCOME OF MESSAGE EXPOSURE AND ITS ROLE IN BELIEF CHANGE PERSISTENCE

The role of confidence in beliefs as an outcome of message exposure and as a factor in the process of belief change has important theoretical implications for theories of media effects and theories of belief change. Using as stimuli messages portraying women of two different cultural backgrounds, this experiment identifies some effects of source expertise and message discrepancy on confidence in beliefs over three posttests (immediate, 10-14 days, and 6 weeks). Messages that were discrepant with existing beliefs had a greater impact on confidence in beliefs than did nondiscrepant messages, more expert sources also slightly increased confidence in beliefs. The direction of the effect of discrepancy (an increase) was opposite to that predicted. Path analyses suggest that the effects of confidence in beliefs on persistence of belief change in this study are largely indirect; the authors suggest that effects of message exposure on confidence and the effects of confidence on belief change persistence may depend on whether the beliefs addressed in the message are central or peripheral.