When Comments and Quotes Collide: How Exemplars and Prior Attitudes Affect News Credibility

Online news outlets offers individuals with a variety of cues to public opinion such as quotes and comments, both of which have been shown to affect perceived public opinion. However, what happens when quotes embedded in news conflict with the sentiment of online comments? An experiment (N = 276) was conducted to investigate this question using a 3 (quote tone: issue supportive vs. issue opposition vs. no quote control) x 3 (comment tone: issue supportive vs. issue opposition vs. no comment control) design. Results revealed that counter-attitudinal online comments are less likely to decrease news credibility when accompanied by attitude consistent quotes. Perceptions of exemplar representativeness and similarity were also affected by exemplar congruity and prior issue attitudes. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings for exemplification theory and the practice of journalism are discussed.