Abstract
An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that persons who undergo an unpleasant initiation to become members of a group increase their liking for the group; that is, they find the group more attractive than do persons who become members without going through a severe initiation. This hypothesis was derived from Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance. 3 conditions were employed: reading of before a group, mildly embarrassing material to be read, no reading. The results clearly verified the hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Keywords
PsychologyGroup (periodic table)Social psychologyClinical psychologyChemistry
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Publication Info
- Year
- 1959
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 59
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 177-181
- Citations
- 1277
- Access
- Closed
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Cite This
Elliot Aronson,
Judson Mills
(1959).
The effect of severity of initiation on liking for a group..
Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology
, 59
(2)
, 177-181.
https://doi.org/10.1037/h0047195
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1037/h0047195