SELECTION OF A TARGET FOR DEFENSIVE PROJECTION.

This hypothesis was tested and supported (p < .05): a person receiving unambiguous undesirable information about himself which is dissonant with his self-concept is more likely to project the attribute onto persons in his own social category than onto outgroup members. Each college student S was told either that he was lacking in or that he possessed homosexual motivation; he then rated the homosexuality of a speaker telling TAT stories on a tape recording. ½ of the Ss believed the speaker was another student; ½ believed he was a criminal. Attribution of homosexuality was a positive function of dissonance only when the speaker was seen as a student. Projection onto the student was greater among Ss with higher self-esteem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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