ATTITUDE CHANGE AND JUSTIFICATION FOR COMPLIANCE.

The article discusses a study which illustrated some of the social processes involved in creating and reducing psychological dissonance and the implications of such dissonance for attitude change in a compliance situation. The study tested the hypothesis that increased justification for taking an opinion position discrepant from one's private opinion would lead to decreased dissonance and therefore decreased attitude change toward the discrepant position. The justification considered in the study refers not to the attitude issue but to reasons for taking a view discrepant from one's private opinion.