Abstract

GANDARILLAS, Beatriz  and  BRINOL, Pablo. Attitude Change Toward the Self in the Organizational Context: The Effect of Thought Format. Rev. psicol. trab. organ. [online]. 2010, vol.26, n.1, pp.19-34. ISSN 2174-0534.

Self-views can influence organizational behavior. Thus, it is important to understand how attitudes toward the self change not only in the personal domain, but also in organizational settings. Self-esteem varies as a function of the direction (favorable or unfavorable) of the thoughts people have toward themselves. The present research examines the impact of the format of these thoughts. Two experiments were conducted in which participants had to think about their strengths or weakness (thought-direction induction) in a continuum or dichotomous format (format manipulation). As expected, participants’ self-esteem was affected directly by the direction of the thoughts (assimilation effect) in the continuum condition, whereas there was a contrast effect (i.e., better self-esteem after thinking in negative rather than positive self-relevant thoughts) for the dichotomous condition. Different interpretations for these findings are offered, highlighting the possibility that dichotomous thinking was difficult in this context of personal relevance. Practical implications for organizational behavior are also discussed.

Keywords : attitudes; attitude change; persuasion; self-esteem; ease.

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