Abstract The present research elaborated a structural equation model explaining individuals’ information processing and attitude development, grounded in a systematization of the potential affecting factors. The model incorporates preferential attitude as endogenous latent variable, and includes quality of the message, source of information, perceived usefulness and perceived reliability as exogenous latent variables. Especially, the impact of the cognitive conflicts between the prior attitude of an individual and the attitude advocated by the message is tentatively observed. The findings indicate that, (1) perceived usefulness and cognitive conflicts affect attitude development significantly, (2) information quality, source of information and perceived reliability affect perceived usefulness significantly, and (3) information quality and source of information affect perceived reliability significantly. The present research provides empirical evidence and theoretical reference for further study in individual cognitive behavior, information distortion and decision biases.
2016, Vol. 13 
