Self Concept Constraints upon Dissonance Reduction

Information communicated by persons responsible for student counseling is often dissonant with students’ self-evaluations. The manner in which dissonance is reduced is of vital concern. In this study test scores dissonant with self-concept related attitudes were presented to a group of college students. Dissonance was reduced by reevaluating the predictive ability of the test. Students’ self-ratings proved highly resistant to change.