COGNITIVE DISSONANCE IN SELECTIVE EXPOSURE

Abstract

Several years ago, one of us (R.G.H.) was asked by the parent-teachers organization at his daughter's elementary school to speak on the subject of television and children. The offer was accepted with mixed emotions. On the one hand, it was clear that the discipline of psychology had something of value to communicate on the subject and that the audience would be eager to hear it. On the other hand, previous experience had shown that nonpsychologists often have the uncanny and unnerving ability to identify what psychologists don't know about a topic.