Cited by 1,297Social and Intergroup PsychologySocial Power and Status DynamicsPsychology of Social Influence

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The effect of severity of initiation on liking for a group.

Aronson, Elliot, Mills, Judson·1959·The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology

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Abstract

IT is a frequent observation that persons who go through a great deal of trouble or pain to attain something tend to value it more highly than persons who attain the same thing with a minimum of effort. For example, one would expect persons who travel a great distance to see a motion picture to be more impressed with it than those who see the same picture at a neighborhood theater. By the same token, individuals who go through a severe initiation to gain admission to a club or organization should tend to think more highly of that organization than those who do not go through the severe initiation to gain admission. Two questions are relevant here: 1. Is this "common observation " valid, that is, does it hold true when tested under cotrolled conditions? 2. If the observation is valid, how can it be accounted for? The relationship might be simply a result of differences in initial motivation. To take the case of initiations, persons who initially have a strong desire to join a particular club should be more willing to undergo unpleasantness to gain admission to it than persons who are low in initial interest. Therefore, a club that requires a severe initiation for admission should be joined only by those people with a strong desire to become members. On the other hand, a club that does not require a severe initiation should be joined by some individuals who like it very much, and by others who are relatively uninterested. Because of this self-selection, one would expect persons who are members of clubs with severe initiations to think more highly of their club, on the average, than members of clubs without severe initiations. But is there something in the initiation itself

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“In this paper, we draw from the classic effort justification research which consistently finds that individuals tend to attribute a greater value to an outcome they put effort into acquiring or achieving (Aronson and Mills 1959; Festinger 1957; Gerard and Mathewson 1966).”
Method
Getting a no-reply is also a reply: An investigation of unreplied consumer attributions
Alba, G., & Slongo, L. A. (2020) · Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services · doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2020.102054 · Cited by 5
Identity and the Self‐Reinforcing Effects of Norm Compliance
Pickup, M., Kimbrough, E. O., & de Rooij, E. D. (2019) · Southern Economic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.3183931 · Cited by 5
Payment methods and their effect on durable goods replacement
Tatavarthy, A., & Mukherjee, K. (2019) · Journal of Consumer Marketing · doi:10.1108/jcm-11-2017-2435 · Cited by 5
Affecting Profundity: Cognitive and Moral Dissonance in Lynch, Loach, Linklater, and Sayles
Moss-Wellington, W. (2017) · doi:10.3167/proj.2017.110104 · Cited by 5
Demystifying the "Sunk Cost Fallacy": When Considering Fixed Cost in Decision-Making is Reasonable
Krämer, A. (2017) · Journal of Research in Marketing · doi:10.17722/jorm.v7i1.167 · Cited by 5
“In older papers cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957)[16] or self-justification (Aronson and Mills, 1959)[4] are seen as an underlying mechanism.”
Background
Political conflict, policing and the challenges of masculinity
Southern, N. (2017) · doi:10.1177/0032258x16687165 · Cited by 5
The behavioral benefits of other people’s deviance
Gunia, B. C., & Kim, S. (2016) · Group Processes & Intergroup Relations · doi:10.1177/1368430216638532 · Cited by 5
“Individuals show surprising flexibility in resolving their dissonance, altering a wide variety of thoughts, attitudes, and/or behaviors to reduce inconsistencies (Aronson & Mills, 1959; Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959; Festinger, Riecken, & Schachter, 1956).”
Background
The relationship between attitudes and behaviour
Eiser, J., & van der Pligt, J. (2015) · doi:10.4324/9781315668222-9 · Cited by 5
Laboratory Simulated Gambling: Risk Varies Across Participant-Stake Procedure
Brandt, A., Sztykiel, H., & Pietras, C. (2013) · The Journal of general psychology · doi:10.1080/00221309.2013.776509 · Cited by 5
“Previous research has shown that the value of outcomes increases as the response effort necessary for obtaining them increases, even when the outcomes have an equal nominal value (Alessandri, Darcheville, Delevoye-Turrel, & Zentall, 2008; see also justification of effort, Aronson & Mills, 1959).”
Background
The Impact of Reading Deficiency on the Global Self-Concept of the Adolescent
Hettinger, C. C. (1982) · The Journal of Early Adolescence · doi:10.1177/027243168200200312 · Cited by 5

Authors: Aronson, E., & Mills, J.
Affiliations: Stanford University (US)
Venue: The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Published: 1959-09
Volume: 59
Issue: 2
Pages: 177-181
ISSN: 0096-851X (ISSN-L)
DOI: 10.1037/h0047195
OpenAlex: W2037252822
Cited by: 1,297
References: 0
Citations by year: 2026: 27 · 2025: 29 · 2024: 34 · 2023: 72 · 2022: 41 · 2021: 49 · 2020: 117 · 2019: 56 · 2018: 58 · 2017: 62 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 38 · 2014: 51 · 2013: 51 · 2012: 35
FWCI: 39.79
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Locations: Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
Topics: Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social Power and Status Dynamics
Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychology of Social Influence
Keywords: initiation, group preferences, self-selection, initial motivation, group membership

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The effect of severity of initiation on liking for a group.

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