Causal uncertainty beliefs and diagnostic information seeking.

Abstract

This study examined the extent to which chronic causal uncertainty beliefs influence diagnostic information seeking. Situational factors intended to increase the excitation level of causal uncertainty beliefs and the intensity of goal-directed behavior also were investigated. Participants expected to interview either a gender in-group or a gender out-group member, and half of them expected to be held accountable for their understanding of the interviewee. For out-group conditions, those accountable participants who possessed chronically accessible causal uncertainty beliefs revealed the greatest preference for diagnostic information. For in-group conditions, no differential pattern of information seeking as a function of chronic causal uncertainty beliefs or goal importance were found. Results are discussed in terms of a recent model of motivated social cognition proposed by G. Weary and J. A. Edwards (1996).