Forced Compliance, Double Forced Compliance and Experimental Dynamics in Social Representations

The present article deals with changes in the subjects’ social representation of a topic (i.e. how they think about “studying at a school”) due to their single or double forced compliance in a counter-attitudinal direction. The single forced compliance was manipulated in two ways, first by having the subjects write an essay (Study 1), and second by having them hold a speech (Study 2). The double forced compliance consisted of having the subject write an essay plus hold a speech (Study 3). The changes in social representation were assessed at two levels, first at the level of the subjects’ responses to a questionnaire (some items of which had central and other items had peripherical meanings…