Chtourou, Anis

The motivated reasoning of individuals exposed to advertising information: The contribution of the Wason selection task - 2022.


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This research highlights the effect of individuals’ motivation on their reasoning when exposed to an advertising message in the form of a conditional hypothesis of the type “if P then Q.” An experiment with 180 participants showed that their reasoning shows more confirmation bias when they are exposed to a pro-attitudinal advertising message than when they are exposed to a counter-attitudinal advertising message. Furthermore, those with a high level of commitment to their preferred brand are more likely to reject counter-attitudinal advertising information and confirm pro-attitudinal advertising messages compared to those with a low level of commitment.