AFFECTIVE REACTIONS TO EXPECTANCY DISCONFIRMATIONS UNDER PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CONDITIONS

Replicated and extended J. M. Carlsmith and E. Aronson's (see 37:4) experiment of expectancy disconfirmations as a source of negative affect. 80 male undergraduates were exposed to a procedure similar to Carlsmith and Aronson's under both public and private conditions. Results indicated that negative affect as a consequence of a strong expectancy disconfirmation is limited to public conditions. That is, for Ss in the public conditions only, the sweet solutions were rated less sweet and the bitter solutions more bitter on the disconfirmation relative to confirmation trials and incorrect trials. This was interpreted in terms of a social evaluation hypothesis although several modified dissonance approaches were not completely negated by the data. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.