Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of self-esteem (high and low), perceived choices (high and low) and priming (with neutral, relevant and irrelevant words pertaining to the counter-attitudinal behavior) on cognitive dissonance. Participants were 120 Chulalongkorn University undergraduate students of 2008 academic year who were classified, both directly and implicitly, as having high or low self-esteem and had reported negative attitudes toward a topic. After having written a counter-attitudinal essay on the topic in either a high or low choice condition, they were randomly assigned into 1 of the 8 experimental manipulations. When the assigned priming tasks were completed, participants were asked to indicate their attitudes toward the topic. The amount of dissonance reductions were then compared.
The results show that
1. After having performed a counter-attitudinal behavior, high self-esteem persons with perceived high choice and primed with relevant words change their attitudes significantly more than low self-esteem persons (p < .05).
2. After having performed a counter-attitudinal behavior, low self-esteem persons with perceived high choice and primed with irrelevant words change their attitudes significantly more than high self-esteem persons (p < .01).
3. After having performed a counter-attitudinal behavior in high choice situation, high self-esteem persons change their attitudes when primed with relevant words more than irrelevant words (p < .01).
4. After having performed a counter-attitudinal behavior in high choice situation, low self-esteem persons change their attitudes when primed with irrelevant words more than relevant words (p < .05).
5. After having performed a counter-attitudinal behavior in high choice situation, high self-esteem persons do not differ from those with low self-esteem when primed with neutral words.
6. After having performed a counter-attitudinal behavior in low choice situation, high self-esteem persons do not differ from those with low self-esteem when primed with neutral words.
7. After having performed a counter-attitudinal behavior and primed with neutral words, persons with high choice change their attitudes more than those with low choice (p < .01).
8. High self-esteem persons are significantly more confident that they are compassionate than low self-esteem persons (p < .01, one tailed).
9. High self-esteem and low self-esteem persons do not differ significantly in the importance they give to the trait compassion.