Kaufmann Martina, Betsch Tilmann
Department of Psychology, University of Erfurt, Germany.
Exp Psychol. 2009;56(5):344-53. doi: 10.1027/1618-3169.56.5.344.
This research considers situations in which individuals explicitly form attitude judgments toward a target object after considering a sample of information. Previous research shows sample-size effects under such conditions: Increasing sample size can produce more extreme judgments. Commonly, these effects are attributed to summative processes in information integration. Alternatively, this research proposes that sample size affects perceived reliability of information, which in turn affects the extremity of the subsequent judgment. Three experiments were conducted to empirically substantiate this alternative account. Experiment 1 provides evidence that participants perceive larger samples as more reliable than smaller samples. Experiment 2 demonstrates that perceived reliability mediates the sample-size effect on judgments. Experiment 3 shows that other variables, such as variability, which lowers the perceived reliability, attenuate sample-size effects. The results are explained with reference to the value account model of attitude formation, stating that implicit and explicit modes of attitude formation are guided by different principles of information integration.
本研究考虑了个体在考虑一系列信息样本后明确对目标对象形成态度判断的情况。先前的研究表明在这种情况下存在样本量效应：增加样本量会产生更极端的判断。通常，这些效应归因于信息整合中的累加过程。相反，本研究提出样本量会影响信息的感知可靠性，进而影响后续判断的极端程度。进行了三项实验以实证证实这一替代解释。实验1提供了证据，表明参与者认为较大样本比较小样本更可靠。实验2表明感知可靠性在样本量对判断的影响中起中介作用。实验3表明，其他变量，如降低感知可靠性的变异性，会减弱样本量效应。研究结果参照态度形成的价值解释模型进行了解释，该模型指出态度形成的隐性和显性模式受不同的信息整合原则指导。
