ABSTRACT High-choice media environments allow people to cocoon themselves with like-minded messages (confirmation bias), which could shape both individual attitudes and perceived prevalence of opinions. This study builds on motivated cognition and spiral of silence theory to disentangle how browsing political messages (both selective exposure as viewing full articles and incidental exposure as encountering leads only) shapes perceived public opinion and subsequently attitudes. Participants (N = 115) browsed online articles on controversial topics; related attitudes and public opinion perceptions were captured before and after. Multi-level modeling demonstrated a confirmation bias. Both selective and incidental exposure affected attitudes per message stance, with stronger impacts for selective exposure. Opinion climate perceptions mediated selective exposure impacts on attitudes.

中文翻译：

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“挑选”舆论氛围：浏览政治信息如何塑造舆论认知和态度

摘要 高选择的媒体环境允许人们用志同道合的信息（确认偏见）来保护自己，这可能会影响个人态度和看法的普遍性。本研究建立在动机认知和沉默螺旋理论的基础上，以解开浏览政治信息（选择性暴露作为查看完整文章和偶然暴露作为仅遇到潜在客户）如何塑造感知的公众舆论和随后的态度。参与者 (N = 115) 浏览了有关有争议话题的在线文章；相关态度和舆论认知在前后被捕获。多级建模显示了确认偏差。选择性暴露和偶然暴露都会影响每个信息立场的态度，选择性暴露的影响更大。