Desire for control and reaction to proattitudinal and counterattitudinal arguments

Abstract

The role of motivation for control in an individual's reaction to persuasive arguments was examined. Subjects scoring either high or low on an individual difference measure of “desire for control” (DC) were exposed to a position on the Equal Rights Amendment with which they either initially agreed or disagreed. It was found that more often high-DC subjects exposed to a proattitudinal message changed their attitudes in the direction advocated than did low DC subjects. Conversely, more often low-DC subjects exposed to counterattitudinal arguments changed their attitudes in the direction of the advocated position than did high-DC subjects. The findings suggest that a motivation to control events may be operative in some attitude-change situations.