Causal
uncertainty is thought to lead to
accuracy motivation, which has been postulated previously to lead to
increases
in effortful information processing. It
was hypothesized that this would depend on the extent to which a person
typically prefers to process with conscious effort.
Processing preference was assessed using the
Judgment/Perception index of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. People high in causal uncertainty and
Judgment (i.e., preference for conscious effort) listed more thoughts
after reading
a persuasive essay and recalled more of the essay than did other
participants. Also, the attitudes of
people high in both causal uncertainty and Judgment towards the topic
were
affected by their assessment of the quality of the arguments.