“I Don’t Care About Politics, I Just Like That Guy!” Affective Disposition and Political Attributes in Information Processing of Political Talk Shows

Authors

  • Carina Weinmann Institute for Media and Communication Studies University of Mannheim
  • Franziska S. Roth Institute for Media and Communication Studies University of Mannheim
  • Frank M. Schneider Institute for Media and Communication Studies University of Mannheim
  • Tanja Krämer DB Mobility Logistics AG Frankfurt
  • Frederic R. Hopp Department of Communication University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Melanie J. Bindl Institute of Media Studies and Communication Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
  • Peter Vorderer Institute for Media and Communication Studies University of Mannheim

Keywords:

political talk shows, affective disposition, affect infusion model, political judgments, affective issue involvement

Abstract

Drawing on the affect infusion model and on affective disposition theory, this study aims to explain the influence of viewers’ affective disposition toward the guests of political TV talk shows on their information processing and judgments. The affective disposition was manipulated in an experiment. Results suggest that this affective disposition remained stable during exposure to the program, leading to predetermined information processing of the discussed political issue and a judgment that is consistent with the one made by the guest. Without prior manipulation of affective disposition, affective involvement with the issue influenced the viewers’ judgments instead, indicating open information processing.

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Published

2017-08-14

Issue

Vol. 11 (2017)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2017 Carina Weinmann, Franziska S. Roth, Frank M. Schneider, Tanja Krämer, Frederic R. Hopp, Melanie J. Bindl, Peter Vorderer

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.