Attention to Information
Research on attention reveals an encoding bias called perceptual
defense, which is evidenced when the valence of
information affects the likelihood that information is
encoded and the speed with which it is processed (Bruner
and Postman 1947; Matlin and Stang 1978). Because the
outcomes people hope for are goal congruent, we expect
that consumers are more likely to encode information that
suggests that the outcome is possible (rather than impossible).
The intensity of hope, driven by yearning, should magnify
the extent of perceptual defense. As such, we anticipate
outcomes such as the ones we describe in P1.