Mere Exposure, Psychological Reactance and Attitude Change

To examine the relationship between mere exposure, psychological reactance and attitude change, 1 15 college students received either no exposure, moderate exposure or excessive exposure to a political message. Results indicated positive evaluation to the message under moderate exposure but negative evaluation under excessive exposure. A delayed post-test indicated that the negative evaluation after excessive exposure improved over time. Psychological reactance was suggested as a possible explanation for the findings. Richard L. Miller is Assistant Professor of Psychology, Georgetown University. POQ 40 (1976) 229-233 This content downloaded from 40.77.167.28 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 05:42:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 230 RICHARD L. MILLER that a larger number of repeated exposures lowers the evaluative ratings. Zajonc et al. have suggested that this inverted U function stems from psychological reactance.4 Reactance, as described by Brehm, is a boomerang effect which results in negative evaluation as a reaction to a perceived threat to freedom.5 Thus, when individuals believe that a persuasive manipulation infringes upon their right to decide for themselves, they often react in a manner opposite to the persuader's intention. Reactance effects have been demonstrated in a number of settings with a variety of freedom encroaching situations,6 but little is known about how long such effects endure. In a real-world application, knowledge about the persistence of reactance is of vital importance. For instance, if a massive campaign is deemed necessary to acquaint a polity with an unfamiliar candidate or political issue, the question of overexposure effects and their longevity would be crucial to campaign strategy. If reactance effects are temporary, then a long-term, massive exposure would be a reasonable strategy. However, if reactance effects endure, then moderate exposure (to minimize reactance arousal) or massive exposure followed by a period of no exposure (in order for reactance to dissipate) might be a better strategy. The present study attempts to clarify the relationship between mere exposure and the persistence of psychological reactance and their effects on attitude enhancement in a political campaign. Since the attitudinal context of the present study was clearly one in which reactance effects were relevant, an inverted U function with regard to mere exposure was predicted. Subjects, Stimulus, Materials, and Measurement Subjects in this investigation were 115 undergraduate college students who resided in a nine-story dormitory building. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions: no exposure (pretest), moderate exposure, overexposure' and exposure removal (delayed post-test). The stimulus object which was repeatedly exposed during the course of this study was a one-foot-by-two-foot poster which read in four-inch high letters: REDUCE FOREIGN AID. This attitudinal sentiment was rephrased and repeated in smaller two-inch type with the words: "Help Stop the Outflow of U.S. Dollars-Equalize Our Balance of Payments." At the bottom of the poster was a solicitation for volunteers to aid in a protest campaign aimed at U.S. congressmen. Postcards by which stu4 R. B. Zajonc, P. Shaver, C. Tavris, and D. van Kneveld, "Exposure, Satiation and Stimulus Discriminability," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 21, 1972, pp. 270280. 5 J. Brehm, A Theory of Psychological Reactance, New York, Academic Press, 1966. 6 Brehm, Responses to Loss of Freedom: A Theory of Psychological Reactance, Morristown, N.J., General Learning Press, 1972. This content downloaded from 40.77.167.28 on Fri, 26 Aug 2016 05:42:35 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms EXPOSURE, REACTANCE AND CHANGE 231 dents could volunteer were appended to the poster. These stimulus materials were placed on the walls of the commons areas of the dormitoryhalls, lounges, foyers, etc. In order to minimize subject suspicion, the dependent measure of affective evaluation was embedded in a 10-item questionnaire which dealt with a variety of political and social questions each of which was phrased as a declarative sentence and accompanied by a nine-point scale ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree." The stimulus statement read: "Foreign aid funds should be greatly reduced." A behavioral measure of attitude towards the stimulus object was provided by the rate of volunteering to the campaign effort as evidenced by response to the postcard solicitations.