AUTHOR=Dolinski Dariusz , Dolinska Barbara , Bar-Tal Yoram TITLE=Need for Closure Moderates the Break in the Message Effect JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME=Volume 7 - 2016 YEAR=2016 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01879 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01879 ISSN=1664-1078 ABSTRACT=

Cutting the message into smaller portions is a common practice in the media. Typically such messages consist of a headline followed by a story elaboration. In a series of studies Dolinski and Kofta (2001) have shown that such a break in the message increases the effect of the information provided in the headline over that of a story which actually contained information inconsistent with that headline. A possible explanation of this effect, based on the concept of the need for cognitive closure, is presented in the article. The experiment shows that break-in-the-message effect is found mainly for participants with high need for closure but not for those with low such need.