We investigate the temporal course of meta-cognition and resistance processes following exposure to counter-attitudinal information in the 2012 Presidential election. Using a unique 3-wave survey panel design, we tracked eligible voters during the last months of the 2012 campaign and experimentally manipulated exposure to negative political messages targeting Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on an online platform. As predicted, we found that politically unengaged (vs. engaged) individuals were less likely to counter-argue a message attacking their favored candidate. Resistance, in turn, led to increased attitudinal certainty, polarization, and correspondence with actual voting behavior over the course of the campaign. These findings provide the first analysis of the longitudinal effects of meta-cognitive processes underlying persuasion for real-world attitude change and behavior.

Research by political psychologists helps to explain why we vote the way we do-and is informing ways to improve democratic elections

Research by Matthew Luttig, Christopher Federico, and Howard Lavine, set to be published in Research & Politics is highlighted in Vox.

Joe Vitriol awarded Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences (FABBS) Doctoral Dissertation Research Excellence Award (2017-2018; competitive international award across the behavioral sciences) for his dissertation titled: “The (In)Egalitarian Self: On the Motivated Rejection of Alleged Implicit Racial Bias.”