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Original Article

Toward a Person × Situation Model of Selective Exposure

Repressors, Sensitizers, and Choice of Online News on Financial Crisis

Published Online:January 01, 2014https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-1105/a000111

Abstract

The present study attempted to predict selective exposure to media messages as a function of personality and situation, which has rarely been examined in prior relevant research. Employing a quasi-experimental method, the interplay between prevailing perceived threat from the economic crisis that started in 2008 and each of the two personality types when dealing with threat – repression and sensitization – was examined to predict online news selection behavior, as unobtrusively recorded. A significant interaction between perceived threat and sensitization tendency was obtained for both the selection of financial crisis-related news and avoidance of financial crisis-unrelated news. The implications of this exclusive pattern of online news selection behavior are discussed.

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