In doubt and disorderly: Ambivalence promotes compensatory perceptions of order.

Ambivalence is a presumably unpleasant experience, and coming to terms with it is an intricate part of human existence. It is argued that ambivalent attitude holders cope with their ambivalence through compensatory perceptions of order. We first show that ambivalence leads to an increase in (visual) perceptions of order (Study 1). In Study 2 we conceptually replicate this finding by showing that ambivalence also increases belief in conspiracy theories, a cognitive form of order perception. Furthermore, this effect is mediated by the negative emotions that are elicited by ambivalence. In Study 3 we show that increased need for order is driving these effects: Affirmations of order cancel out the effect of ambivalence on perceptions of order. Theoretical as well as societal implications are discussed.

[1]  J. Greenberg,et al.  Terror Management Theory of Self-Esteem and Cultural Worldviews: Empirical Assessments and Conceptual Refinements , 1997 .

[2]  Claude M. Steele,et al.  DISSONANCE PROCESSES AS SELF-AFFIRMATION , 1983 .

[3]  M. Conner,et al.  Attitudes towards following meat, vegetarian and vegan diets: an examination of the role of ambivalence , 2001, Appetite.

[4]  H. Decker The unconscious. , 1977, Psychological issues.

[5]  F. Fukuyama,et al.  Conspiracy: How the Paranoid Style Flourishes and Where It Comes From , 1998, Foreign Affairs.

[6]  Leandre R. Fabrigar,et al.  Attitudinal Ambivalence and Message-Based Persuasion: Motivated Processing of Proattitudinal Information and Avoidance of Counterattitudinal Information , 2008, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[7]  M. Inzlicht,et al.  Moderated Disanxiousuncertlibrium: Specifying the Moderating and Neuroaffective Determinants of Violation-Compensation Effects , 2012 .

[8]  M. Inzlicht,et al.  Understanding all inconsistency compensation as a palliative response to violated expectations , 2012, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[9]  E.,et al.  Self-Discrepancy : A Theory Relating Self and Affect , 2022 .

[10]  M. Zanna,et al.  Let's not be indifferent about (attitudinal) ambivalence. , 1995 .

[11]  S. Freud Civilization and Its Discontents , 2018, Princeton Readings in Political Thought.

[12]  N. Signorielli Adolescents and Ambivalence Toward Marriage , 1991 .

[13]  Aaron C. Kay,et al.  Religious Belief as Compensatory Control , 2010, Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

[14]  S. Heine,et al.  The Case of the Transmogrifying Experimenter , 2008, Psychological science.

[15]  E. Harmon-Jones,et al.  Cognitive dissonance: Progress on a pivotal theory in social psychology. , 1999 .

[16]  R. Petty,et al.  Attitude strength : antecedents and consequences , 1995 .

[17]  J. G. Holmes,et al.  Compensatory conviction in the face of personal uncertainty: going to extremes and being oneself. , 2001, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[18]  R. Sternberg Handbook of Creativity: Subject Index , 1998 .

[19]  A. Rosenblum,et al.  Ambivalence toward methadone treatment among intravenous drug users. , 1991, Journal of psychoactive drugs.

[20]  Susan T. Fiske,et al.  The Ambivalence Toward Men Inventory , 1999 .

[21]  R. Baumeister,et al.  The Physiology of Willpower: Linking Blood Glucose to Self-Control , 2007, Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

[22]  Zakary L. Tormala,et al.  A new look at the consequences of attitude certainty: the amplification hypothesis. , 2008, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[23]  J. van der Pligt,et al.  The Agony of Ambivalence and Ways to Resolve It: Introducing the MAID Model , 2009, Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

[24]  T. Ostrom The relationship between the affective, behavioral, and cognitive components of attitude. , 1969 .

[25]  J. Bailey,et al.  When Racial Ambivalence Evokes Negative Affect, Using a Disguised Measure of Mood , 1992 .

[26]  I. Mitroff Norms and Counter-Norms in a Select Group of the Apollo Moon Scientists: A Case Study of the Ambivalence of Scientists , 1974 .

[27]  Joop van der Pligt,et al.  The Agony of Ambivalence and Ways to Resolve It: Introducing the MAID Model: , 2009 .

[28]  Derek D. Rucker,et al.  What's in a frame anyway?: A meta-cognitive analysis of the impact of one versus two sided message framing on attitude certainty , 2008 .

[29]  Howard G Lavine,et al.  The electoral consequences of ambivalence toward presidential candidates , 2001 .

[30]  Irwin Katz,et al.  Racial ambivalence and American value conflict: Correlational and priming studies of dual cognitive structures. , 1988 .

[31]  Adam D. Galinsky,et al.  Compensatory Control , 2009 .

[32]  E. Crone,et al.  Evaluating ambivalence: social-cognitive and affective brain regions associated with ambivalent decision-making. , 2014, Social cognitive and affective neuroscience.

[33]  Kyle Nash,et al.  PERSONALITY PROCESSES AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES Anxious Uncertainty and Reactive Approach Motivation (RAM) , 2010 .

[34]  P. Bearman,et al.  Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health Adolescent Contraceptive Use and Pregnancy Ambivalence and Pregnancy:adolescents'attitudes, Contraceptive Use and Pregnancy , 2022 .

[35]  M. Lerner,et al.  Observer's reaction to the "innocent victim": compassion or rejection? , 1966, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[36]  Bell,et al.  Ambivalence and Persuasion: The Processing of Messages about Immigrant Groups , 1996, Journal of experimental social psychology.

[37]  A. Lacic [A new look]. , 1989, Pielegniarka i polozna.

[38]  Adam D. Galinsky,et al.  Lacking Control Increases Illusory Pattern Perception , 2008, Science.

[39]  M. Diehl,et al.  Effects of Attitudinal Ambivalence on Information Processing and Attitude-Intention Consistency☆ , 1997 .

[40]  J. van der Pligt,et al.  Ambivalence and information integration in attitudinal judgment. , 2004, British Journal of Social Psychology.

[41]  S. Freud The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud , 1953 .

[42]  M. Zanna,et al.  "Remembering" dissonance: Simultaneous accessibility of inconsistent cognitive elements moderates epistemic discomfort. , 1999 .

[43]  K. Bos,et al.  Uncertainty management: the influence of uncertainty salience on reactions to perceived procedural fairness. , 2001 .

[44]  J. N. Bassili Meta-judgmental versus operative indexes of psychological attributes: The case of measures of attitude strength. , 1996 .

[45]  Mark Fenster Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture , 2008 .

[46]  Irwin Katz,et al.  Stigma: A Social Psychological Analysis , 1981 .

[47]  P. Devine,et al.  Self-Directed Versus Other-Directed Affect as a Consequence of Prejudice-Related Discrepancies , 2004 .

[48]  Critical social psychology , 1983 .

[49]  J. van der Pligt,et al.  Yes We Can , 2010 .

[50]  Mark Rotteveel,et al.  Ambivalence and decisional conflict as a cause of psychological discomfort: feeling tense before jumping off the fence , 2009 .

[51]  C. Armitage,et al.  Felt and Potential Ambivalence across the Stages of Change , 2007, Journal of health psychology.

[52]  S. Heine,et al.  Cultural differences in response styles: The role of dialectical thinking , 2008 .

[53]  R. Petty,et al.  Extending the bases of subjective attitudinal ambivalence: interpersonal and intrapersonal antecedents of evaluative tension. , 2001, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[54]  K. Kaplan On the ambivalence-indifference problem in attitude theory and measurement: A suggested modification of the semantic differential technique. , 1972 .

[55]  Rolf A. Zwaan,et al.  One Way and the Other , 2013, Psychological science.

[56]  Stephan Lewandowsky,et al.  NASA Faked the Moon Landing—Therefore, (Climate) Science Is a Hoax , 2013, Psychological science.

[57]  J. van der Pligt,et al.  Steps, stages, and structure: finding compensatory order in scientific theories. , 2013, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[58]  J. Brehm A Brief History of Dissonance Theory , 2007 .

[59]  K. Pillemer,et al.  Intergenerational Ambivalence : a New Approach to the Study of Parent-Child Relations in Later Life , 1998 .

[60]  K van den Bos,et al.  Uncertainty management: the influence of uncertainty salience on reactions to perceived procedural fairness. , 2001, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[61]  M. Zanna,et al.  Thinking and caring about cognitive inconsistency: when and for whom does attitudinal ambivalence feel uncomfortable? , 2002, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[62]  J. Pligt,et al.  Ambivalence, discomfort, and motivated information processing , 2006 .

[63]  Derek D. Rucker,et al.  When resistance is futile: consequences of failed counterarguing for attitude certainty. , 2004, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[64]  P. Dade The Cambridge Companion to Piaget , 2011 .

[65]  F. Heider Attitudes and cognitive organization. , 1946, The Journal of psychology.

[66]  Ambivalence Toward Men Inventory , 2014 .

[67]  William A. Cunningham,et al.  Neural components of social evaluation. , 2003, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[68]  R. Michael Alvarez,et al.  American Ambivalence Towards Abortion Policy: Development of a Heteroskedastic Probit Model of Competing Values , 1995 .

[69]  Aaron C. Kay,et al.  Evidence for the specificity of control motivations in worldview defense: Distinguishing compensatory control from uncertainty management and terror management processes. , 2011 .

[70]  Joop van der Pligt,et al.  Attitudes as stable and transparent constructions , 2004 .

[71]  Karen M. Douglas,et al.  Dead and Alive , 2012, Diary of a Detour.

[72]  R. Petty,et al.  The gradual threshold model of ambivalence: relating the positive and negative bases of attitudes to subjective ambivalence. , 1996, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[73]  Aaron C. Kay,et al.  Seeking structure in social organization: compensatory control and the psychological advantages of hierarchy. , 2014, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[74]  Aaron C. Kay,et al.  God and the government: testing a compensatory control mechanism for the support of external systems. , 2008, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[75]  D. Rucker,et al.  Not So Fluid and Not So Meaningful: Toward an Appreciation of Content-Specific Compensation , 2012 .

[76]  Michael Basseches,et al.  Dialectical Thinking and Adult Creativity , 1989 .

[77]  P. Slater,et al.  Maternal ambivalence and narcissism: a cross-cultural study , 1965 .

[78]  J. van der Pligt,et al.  Things Will Get Better: The Anxiety-Buffering Qualities of Progressive Hope , 2009, Personality & social psychology bulletin.