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Good News! How Reading Valenced News Articles Influences Positive Distinctiveness and Learning From News

Sun, May 24, 9:00 to 10:15, Caribe Hilton, Tropical A

Abstract

In a globalized world, news readers are confronted with a vast amount of news on international issues. Based on a study in Germany and the U.S., news readers’ evaluation of their own and the other nation as well as their learning processes while reading news articles were investigated. A 2 (country: U.S. vs. Germany) x 2 (article version: positive valence vs. negative valence) experiment was conducted (N = 364). For both countries, results showed that if participants had read positively valenced news articles they evaluated their own nation and its handling of societal issues better. The influence was stronger for the U. S. and was controlled for collective self-esteem. Also, if positively valenced news articles were read participants were able to remember the content of news articles better. The latter effect only occurred for the German but not for the U.S. American sample and was controlled for social comparison proneness.

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