Selective Retention

The principle of selective retention states that people remember more accurately messages that are closer to their interests, views and beliefs than those that are in contrast with their values and beliefs. We are selecting what to keep in the memory, narrowing the informational flow once again.

When parents ask children to do chores around the house, children have an uncanny ability to remember only the chores that are the easiest or the ones they want to do. Also, people usually remember the parts of the professor's lecture they agree with and tend to forget the parts that do not correspond to beliefs.

Want to test this?

What examples of selective exposure, attention, perception and retention do you remember from what you have just read? Why those?

If you remember more than or 5 give yourself 3 points, if more than or 3 give yourself 2 points. If less, give yourself 1 point only for reading the site.