RESOLUTION OF THE COMMUNICATION DISCREPANCY ISSUE IN ATTITUDE CHANGE,

A controversial issue in the area of attitude change revolves around the question of whether greater discrepancies between communication position and attitude of the subject yield greater or lesser change. Recent research has tended to demonstrate that there is a curvilinear relationship between attitude change and the degree of communication discrepancy. Small differences yield negligible positive attitude change. Moderate differences yield the greatest change and large discrepancies are believed to be responsible for negative change or boomerang effects. The optimal discrepancy yielding greatest change is dependent upon the subjects latitude of acceptance for deviant positions. If the latitude of acceptance is small, only very slight discrepancies yield positive change. If it is large, the optimal discrepancy may be much further away from the position of the subject. Author