我們是否記得與自己相左的意見？以大型網路研究探索個體對他人意見的訊息處理

Abstract

在現代公民社會，許多社會議題透過網路傳播、發酵。當人們在網路上參與討論時，以人有限的認知資源，會如何處理眼前多元且分歧的資訊？我們試圖從訊息的選擇以及訊息的記憶兩個方向來探索這個問題。在過去研究指出，人們傾向選擇支持自身態度，或是符合自己原初假設的資訊，這現象被稱為驗證性偏誤。然而，人們記得的內容，會是支持自身態度的資訊，還是那些與自身態度相左的？在記憶研究文獻中，此問題尚未有定論。本研究架設實驗網頁模擬線上討論中接收訊息的場景。在這個大規模施測（N = 5395）的線上實驗中，使用連續訊息搜尋作業以及再認記憶作業探索人對於他人意見的訊息處理，並測量與訊息處理相關的個體差異。我們從實驗中發現人們具有驗證性偏誤，也就是傾向選擇支持自己態度的他人意見，但此偏誤在高認知涉入程度的討論情境即有所減緩。我們使用線性混和效果模型預測記憶表現，發現參與者在相左意見的記憶較支持意見為佳。進一步使用不同的記憶測度預測模型對這現象進行更細緻的探討後，發現支持意見表現較差來自於誤警較多。此外，我們發現部分個人特質，例如誠實謙遜、開放性以及認知需求，能正向預測記憶表現。

In the modern civilized society, more and more social issues are raised and communicated through the internet. On the internet, how do people process diverse and diverged information with limited cognitive resources? Previous studies have shown a confirmation bias during information selection—people tend to select information in line with their attitudes or hypotheses. However, it is still an open question whether an individual also shows such a confirmation bias in remembering information and the present study was set out to answer this question. In this large-scale web-based study (N = 5395), each participant was presented with a sequence of opinions that aligned either with or against their positions on a specific issue. The participants’ recognition memories of these opinions were then tested after a short delay during which they were required to fill out a personality questionnaire. In the results from mixed-effects regression models that controlled for individual differences, a confirmation bias was indeed observed during information selection although the bias could be attenuated when the participants were engaged for further discussion. On the contrary, the participants actually showed an overall worse memory performance for opinions that were in line with rather than against their attitudes because of more false alarms. In addition to personal attitudes, we also found some personality variables, Honesty-Humility and Need for Cognition in particular, to positively predict the performance of recognition memory.