Dissonance Arousal and Persistence in Attitude Change

If dissonance theory rightly predicts short-term attitude changes, it has yet to prove its ability to predict long-term changes. Therefore, this paper will try to assess the persistence in attitude change following dissonance arousal in an induced-compliance paradigm. To this end, undergraduate students took part in two induced-compliance experiments (N = 52 in Study 1 and N = 40 in Study 2) following a 2 (free choice vs. no choice) X 2 (time of measure: short vs. long term) mixed design. The attitude change was measured immediately after the counterattitudinal essay and one month later. The results suggest that dissonance-provoked attitude change is durable over time. In fact, only the participants in the free-choice condition changed their attitude in the short term; their attitude change persisted one month after the experimental situation.