The nature of consistency motivation: Consistency, aconsistency, and anticonsistency in a dissonance paradigm

The attitudinal consequences of acute and chronic activation of a motive for consistency were examined in two studies. In the first, only participants whose consistency motives had been temporarily activated showed a traditional dissonance effect—greater attitude change following a counterattitudinal statement made with perceived free choice. In the second, consistency‐activated participants with chronic high, middle, or low preferences for consistency showed strong, weak, and reverse dissonance effects, respectively. The results support a bivalent model of consistency motivation and account for prior difficulties in obtaining and replicating dissonance effects.