Elaboration of Information
When involvement in a message is high and consumers
engage in objective processing, they generate support and
counterarguments based on the strength of message arguments.
Strong (weak) arguments generate support arguments
(counterarguments). However, when involvement in a
message is high and hope is strong, the nature of the elaboration
process may differ, because support and counterarguments
are based less on the strength of the message
arguments than on the extent to which they suggest that the
goal-congruent outcome is possible. Because hope is
dependent on the favorability of such evaluation, the uncertainty
reduction that Tiedens and Linton (2001) predict
should be directed not so much by an accuracy goal but by
the favored hypothesis that the product is effective, that is,
that the outcome is possible. Reviews by Frey, Schulz-
Hardt, and Stahlberg (1996) and Kunda (1990) indicate that
when reasoning is motivated, people tend to focus on cases
that confirm a favored hypothesis, a bias labeled as the
“confirmation bias.”