Induced compliance and opinion change

Abstract

The present study investigated the effects of commitment and inducement on opinion change in a forced compliance situation. Subjects were induced to record strongly counterat-titudinal statements under two levels of commitment (Anonymous or Public recording). As inducement conditions, half of the subjects were offered one pencil while the remaining sub-jects were offered five pencils for recording the statements. It was found that subjects in the Public conditions showed opinion change in the direction of the counterattitudinal position while subjects in the Anonymous conditions did not. The inducement manipulation was not effective in producing differential opinion change. These results were discussed in terms of dissonance, self-presentation, and self-perception theories.