Ambivalence, discomfort, and motivated information processing

Conceptualizing leadership perceptions as attitudes: Using attitude theory to further understand the leadership process

“…A central tenet of the theory of cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957) is that people are motivated to maintain consistency of their cognitive structure. Because cognitive inconsistency is aversive (e.g., Jonas, Diehl, & Brömer, 1997;Maio, Bell, & Esses, 1996;Nordgren, van Harreveld, & van der Pligt, 2006) it is argued that people predominantly seek out and pay close attention to new information that confirms their existing attitudes and avoid information that might contradict their attitudes (see meta-analysis by Hart et al, 2009). This preference for supportive information over opposing information has traditionally been termed 'selective exposure' and as a 'confirmation bias' (Jonas, SchulzHardt, Frey, & Thelen, 2001).…”

“…Interestingly, attitudinal ambivalence can have differing effects on the processing of attitude-relevant information. Some research shows that ambivalent respondents use more effort and deliberation in processing information, due to the motivation to seek out and scrutinize any information that can resolve the tension, than do respondents low in ambivalence (Brömer, 1998;Jonas et al, 1997;Maio et al, 1996;Nordgren et al 2006). This suggests that one way for leaders to create attitude change in their followers is to first try to create attitudinal ambivalence.…”

Always on my mind: The impact of relational ambivalence on rumination upon supervisor mistreatment

“…It produces tension, conflict and unpleasant emotions (Larsen, in press) and heightens an individual's attention to subsequent cues from attitudinal objects (Maio, Bell, & Esses, 1996;Ashforth et al, 2014). Consequently, ambivalence arouses a consistency seeking motivation (Nordgren, van Harreveld, & van der Pligt, 2006) in such a way that any new information helps to assuage an individual's feelings of dissonance.…”

“…This type of interactional effect mimics our definition of relational ambivalence since competing positive and negative relationship experiences (e.g., high distributive justice and abuse) coexist. Given that ambivalent individuals are well aware of the source of their ambivalence (Locke & Braun, in 2009;Ashforth et al, 2014) and that ambivalence evokes an uncomfortable state (Katz et al, 1977;Nordgren et al, 2006), it is probable that a negative emotional event with an employee's supervisor would increase rumination. Therefore we predict:…”

Weakness of will, akrasia, and the neuropsychiatry of decision making: An interdisciplinary perspective

“…In this line of research, ambivalent attitudes are generally conceptualized as rather weak attitudes, as they are less predictive of future behavior, less stable, and more susceptible to persuasion (Armitage & Conner, 2000). Notably, healthy individuals have been found to spontaneously engage in biased information processing to resolve instances of ambivalence-for example, by selective elaboration of one-sided information (Nordgren, van Harreveld, & van der Pligt, 2006). Therefore, it is tempting to speculate that schizophrenic patients may suffer from ambivalence because they are not able to spontaneously resolve evaluative conflict.…”