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The Power of Self Persuasion, 1999
The Power of Self Persuasion, 1999
New York:
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 5, 438^46. Freeman.
Aronson, E., & Carlsmith, J. M. (1963). Effect of severity Stone, J., Aronson, E., Crain, A. L., Winslow, M. P., &
of threat on the devaluation of forbidden behavior. Journal Fried, C. B. (1994). Inducing hypocrisy as a means of
of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 66, 584-588. encouraging young adults to use condoms. Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 116-128.
Aronson, E., & Carlsmith, J. M. (1968). Experimentation in
social psychology. In G. Lindzey & E. Aronson (Eds.),
Handbook of social psychology (2nd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 1-79).
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Elliot Aronson
Aronson, E., Ellsworth, P., Carlsmith, M., & Gonzales, M. University of California at Santa Cruz
(1990). Methods of research in social psychology. New
York: McGraw-Hill. In contrast with traditional, direct techniques of persuasion
(advertising, political rhetoric, etc.), self-persuasion is indirect
Aronson, E., & Linder, D. (1965). Gain and loss of esteem and entails placing people in situations where they are motivated
as determinants of interpersonal attractiveness. Journal of to persuade themselves to change their own attitudes or behavior.
Experimental Social Psychology, 1, 156-171. We find that where important attitudes, behavior, or lifestyle
changes are concerned, self-persuasion strategies produce more
Aronson, E., & Mettee, D. (1968). Dishonest behavior as a powerful and more long-lasting effects than do direct techniques
function of differential levels of induced self-esteem. of persuasion. This is primarily due to the fact that in direct per-
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, 121-127. suasion, members of an audience are constantly aware of the fact
that someone is trying (or has tried) to influence them. In a self-
Aronson, E., & Mills, J. (1959). The effect of severity of persuasion situation, people are convinced that the motivation for
initiation on liking for a group. Journal of Abnormal and change comes from within. In the present address, the author
Social Psychology, 59, 177-181. reviews a range of his research on self-persuasion and under-
scores its relevance to current societal problems.
Aronson, E., & Patnoe, S. (1997). The jigsaw classroom:
Building cooperation in the classroom. New York:
Receiving an award for a lifetime of scientific dabbling pro-
Longman.
vides me with a powerful impetus (as well as a wonderful
Aronson, E., Turner, J., & Carlsmith, J. M. (1963). excuse) to look over my shoulder, as it were, at some 40
Communicator credibility and communication discrepancy years of my own experiments to see what unifying princi-
as determinants of opinion change. Journal of Abnormal ples may have guided that activity. Alas, I am forced to
and Social Psychology, 67, 31-36. admit that when I scan the list of publications on my cur-
riculum vitae, I encounter well over 100 experiments on a
Dickerson, C. A., Thibodeau, R., Aronson, E., & Miller, D. hodgepodge of topics, experiments apparently performed by
(1992). Using cognitive dissonance to encourage water con- a person who was hell-bent on following his nose wherever
servation. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 22, it might lead him: into such diverse areas as perceptual
841-854. rigidity, achievement motivation, graphic expression, com-
munication and persuasion, interpersonal attraction, fatigue,
Gonzales, M. H., Aronson, E., & Costanzo, M. (1988). Parkinson's Law, prejudice reduction, dietary preferences of
Increasing the effectiveness of energy auditors: A field rats, toy preferences of toddlers, AIDS prevention among
experiment. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 18, teenagers, energy and water conservation among adults, and
1046-1066. on and on and on.
Aronson, E., & Linder, D. (1965). Gain and loss of esteem Hyman, H., & Sheatsley, P. (1947). Some reasons why infor-