Bending without breaking: examining the role of attitudinal ambivalence in resisting persuasive communication

The present research aims at showing that ambivalence may serve an adaptive function: to preserve attitudes and to resist persuasion. In two experiments, participants were exposed to a counter‐attitudinal message attributed to an ingroup majority. Results of both experiments showed that individuals high in ambivalence changed toward the source more than individuals low in ambivalence at the direct level, while at the indirect level––where the link between attitudes and the source's message is less apparent––individuals low in ambivalence changed toward the source more than individuals high in ambivalence. Experiment 2 also showed that this effect is particularly true for high self‐monitoring participants, thereby supporting a motivational interpretation of the effect. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.