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Challenge and threat motivation: effects on superficial and elaborative information processing.

ABSTRACT: This paper integrates the motivational states of challenge and threat within a dual processing perspective. Previous research has demonstrated that individuals experience a challenge state when individuals have sufficient resources to cope with the demands of a task (Blascovich et al., 1993). Because the experience of resource availability has been shown to be associated with superficial processing (Garcia-Marques and Mackie, 2007), we tested the hypothesis that challenge is associated with superficial processing in two persuasion experiments. Experiment 1 revealed that inducing attitudes of participants in a challenge state was not sensitive to the quality of arguments presented. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the effect occurs even when task engagement, manipulated by the presence (vs. the absence) of a task observer (Blascovich et al., 1993), is high. The implications of these results for the biopsychosocial model model and the cognitive and motivational literature are discussed.

SUBMITTER: Fonseca R

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4196581 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Challenge and threat motivation: effects on superficial and elaborative information processing.

Fonseca Ricardo R Blascovich James J Garcia-Marques Teresa T

Frontiers in psychology 20141014

This paper integrates the motivational states of challenge and threat within a dual processing perspective. Previous research has demonstrated that individuals experience a challenge state when individuals have sufficient resources to cope with the demands of a task (Blascovich et al., 1993). Because the experience of resource availability has been shown to be associated with superficial processing (Garcia-Marques and Mackie, 2007), we tested the hypothesis that challenge is associated with supe ...[more]

PMID: 25352823

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Dataset Information

Challenge and threat motivation: effects on superficial and elaborative information processing.

Publications

Challenge and threat motivation: effects on superficial and elaborative information processing.

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