Miserable but Validated: The Role of Belonging and Mood in Media Preference

Prior research has shown both a preference for belief-congruent information and affectively positive information. In the present research, we assessed how these preferences may conflict when belief-congruent media is also necessarily negative. Recent theories suggest the desire for validating information is tied to hedonic belonging needs and should impart a stronger influence on information searching than mood maintenance. Across 3 studies ( N = 1038) we demonstrated that people consistently prefer validating information, even when the information is negative in valence. In Study 1 and 2 participants demonstrated the preference for validating information despite anticipating their own selection would decrease their mood. This tendency was stronger for people with more extreme beliefs. In Study 3 we found that acute ostracism in a Cyberball paradigm increased bias toward validating news above and beyond inclusion and negative mood induction. Findings suggest a unique role of social rejection in guiding information seeking behaviour beyond eliciting negative emotions.