Does Greater Amount of Information Always Bolster Attitudinal Resistance?

Previous research suggests that attitudinal resistance to information that challenges a prior evaluation increases with the amount of information underlying the prior evaluation. We revisit this proposition in a context in which a set of important claims about a target brand are presented either alone—a lower amount of “isolated” information—or along with other favorable, but less important claims—a higher amount of “embedded” information. Results from two experiments show that when the challenge occurs immediately after the initial evaluation, a greater amount of “embedded” initial information does produce greater attitudinal resistance. However, when the challenge occurs after a delay, a lesser amount of “isolated” information produces greater attitudinal resistance. The findings qualify previous assumptions about the role of prior information in attitudinal resistance, and support a constructive view of judgment revision and attitudinal resistance.