Self-Consistency and Self-Enhancement Motivation Impacts on Selective Exposure to Politics — A SESAM Model Application

Building on the SESAM model, influences of self-consistency motivation (evident in bias toward partisanship-consistent messages) and self-enhancement motivation (evident in same-group bias) on selective exposure to political messages were hypothesized. A selective exposure experiment (N = 113) displayed political messages on eight topics, with messages associated either with male or female authors. Selective exposure patterns demonstrated both partisan bias and same-gender bias. Corroborating the notion that self-enhancement motivation affects exposure to even political content, identity importance and perceptions of public esteem were associated with longer exposure times for messages from same-gender authors.