Beyond the filter bubble: interactive effects of perceived threat and topic involvement on selective exposure to information

We investigated participants' preferential selection of information and their attitude moderation in an online environment. Results showed that even when opposing views were presented side-to-side, people would still preferentially select information that reinforced their existing attitudes. Preferential selection of information was, however, influenced by both situational (e.g., perceived threat) and personal (e.g., topic involvement) factors. Specifically, perceived threat induced selective exposure to attitude consistent information for topics that participants had low involvement. Participants had a higher tendency to select peer user opinions in topics that they had low than high involvement, but only when there was no perception of threat. Overall, participants' attitudes were moderated after being exposed to diverse views, although high topic involvement led to higher resistance to such moderation. Perceived threat also weakened attitude moderation, especially for low involvement topics. Results have important implication to the potential effects of "information bubble" - selective exposure can be induced by situational and personal factors even when competing views are presented side-by-side.