Abstract
The present research examined how individuals' thinking style (holistic vs. analytic) is associated with the way they deal with contradictory information and whether experiencing mixed emotions can mediate this relationship. Participants first completed the thinking style measure and then were exposed to two contradictory pieces of information (Studies 1 and 2). In study 2, we also measured the experience of mixed emotions to test the mediating role of this variable. Across two studies, we found that individuals with a holistic thinking style were more able to reconcile contradictory information compared to individuals with an analytic thinking style. Study 2 showed that the relationship between thinking style and dealing with contradiction was mediated by the experience of mixed emotions. This research extends previous findings on confrontation of contradiction and mixed emotions by using an individual-differences rather than a cultural-differences approach, and establishes mixed emotions as a plausible mediating variable.
Highlights
People deal with contradictions on almost a daily basis, the tools used to resolve these inconsistencies in our social worlds are often very different
The present study examines the relationship between thinking style and the way people deal with contradiction and proposes a new explanatory mechanism, namely the activation of mixed emotions
Our research extends prior literature in two important ways. It applies an individual-differences perspective instead of a cross-cultural approach. It establishes the mediational role of mixed emotions in the relationship between thinking style and the way people deal with contradiction
Summary
People deal with contradictions on almost a daily basis, the tools used to resolve these inconsistencies in our social worlds are often very different. The present study examines the relationship between thinking style and the way people deal with contradiction and proposes a new explanatory mechanism, namely the activation of mixed emotions. Contemporary theories of thinking style address different ways of dealing with contradiction depending on whether the mode of thinking is holistic or analytic [8,9,10]. These theories define holistic-analytic thinking style as a multifaceted construct composed by several dimensions.
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