Self-Presentational Analysis of the Effects of Incentives on Attitude Change Following Counterattitudinal Behavior

A self-presentational analysis of the forced compliance setting focuses on the predicament-creating aspects of Counterattitudinal actions and on the types of accounting tactics people use to excuse or justify events that threaten their identities before real or imagined audiences. The social meaning of monetary payments that are offered for the performance of Counterattitudinal actions should affect the nature of the predicament subjects confront. It was hypothesized that when payment is introduced in a context that increases subjects' concerns about moral evaluation relevant to bribery, a direct relationship should occur between magnitude of payment and attitude change. If payment is introduced in a context that minimizes moral evaluation relevant to bribery, however, an inverse relationship should occur. Three experiments provided support for these hypotheses. In addition, attitude change was enhanced when subjects thought they were presenting their accounts to an audience that had observed their actions. Finally, compared to observers, subjects who had received large payments attempted to redefine them to make them appear more legitimate.