On the Recall of Initial Attitudes following Counterattitudinal Advocacy: An Experimental Reexamination

Abstract

The possibility that choice subjects in the Bem and McConnell study knew their initial attitudes but chose not to report them was investigated in the present research. Subjects were first induced to write a counterattitudinal essay under either choice or no-choice conditions, and then were either provided or not provided a monetary incentive for being accurate in recalling their initial attitudes (obtained a week earlier). As hypothesized, the attitude-recall error in the choice-no-incentive condition was found to be considerably greater than in the other three conditions. It was concluded that, contrary to the claim of self-perception theory, initial attitudes are not overwhelmed by counterattitudinal advocacy.