The influence of attitude on the recall of controversial material: A failure to confirm

Abstract Recent research has provided little empirical support for the hypothesis, based on the well-known study by Levine and Murphy, that an individual learns and remembers best material which is consonant with his relevant attitudes. A further attempt was made to investigate this hypothesis, creating conditions which were as similar as possible to those prevailing in the Levine and Murphy study. No indications of the Levine-Murphy relationship between attitude and memory were found. Furthermore, no support was found for the extension of this hypothesis suggested by Jones and Kohler, that an individual will remember best plausible covaluant material and implausible contravaluant material.