THE INTERACTIVE INFLUENCE OF PROSCRIPTIVE MORAL CONCERNS AND THE VALUE-EXPRESSIVE ATTITUDINAL FUNCTION ON COGNITIVE PROCESSING CONCERNS FOR CENSORSHIP

Abstract

Prior research has illuminated the various consequences of people’s concerns for processing cognitive (versus affective) information, but the origins of such processing concerns remain unexplored. The present research investigated the impact of attitudinal functions – the psychological function an attitude has for the attitude-holder – on cognitive processing concerns. In particular, the value-expressive attitudinal function, which facilitates the expression of moral values, is hypothesized to enhance cognitive meta-bases among individuals with low proscriptive moral concerns but not those who already have high proscriptive moral concerns. This hypothesized interaction was examined for the topic of censorship, where the value-expressive attitudinal function was either measured as an individual difference (Study 1) or made situationally salient (Study 2). This bears significant implications for persuasion in the domain of moral judgments. For example, cognitive appeals that aim to address low proscriptive moral concerns should be more effective when the value-expressive attitudinal function is salient than not.