Apparatus to Facilitate the Scoring of the Thurstone Attitude Scales

Summary

One hundred subjects were asked to rate themselves and others whom they had known for at least six months on the possession of four traits: Stinginess, Stubborness, Messiness, and Bashfulness. From these ratings it was determined whether or not the subjects possessed insight into their own personalities, with regard to these four traits. Information was then given to the subjects indicating to them their “true” possession of the traits. For those without insight, this information was dissonant. A second rating showed that those subjects receiving dissonant information responded to the dissonance by increasing their projection of that trait to others. These results supported the hypotheses that projection was due to a lack of insight, and that dissonance is reduced by increases in projection.