CHINESE ATTITUDINAL REACTIONS TO FORCED COMPLIANCE: A CROSS-CULTURAL EXPERIMENT IN THE THEORY OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
Abstract
The paper represents an attempt to provide empirical answers to the questions posed by two mutually contradictory theories pertinent to Chinese reactions in a forced compliance situation, viz. the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance and a Characterological Theory about Chinese behavior. The former is about the tendency of people to maintain consistency between their cognitions, evaluations, and behaviors and how people react once this consistency is disrupted. The latter is about the behavior characteristics of Chinese resulting from their culture of Confucianism. It was found that the experiment supports the Characterological Theory in general, but only part of the Dissonance Theory is supported. For example, for the Chinese and American subjects alike, increased inducement produces increased compliance. But unlike that of the American subjects, the internalized attitudes of the Chinese were affected neither by increased inducement nor by consequent increased compliance. However it was not concluded that this experiment has large implications for dissonance theory as a whole but it was contended that the experiment has direct implications for the cross-cultural applicability of dissonance due to forced compliance. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1965
- Accession Number
- AD0651566
Entities
People
- Paul Hiniker
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology