POSTDECISIONAL DISSONANCE AND THE COMMODIFIED SELF-CONCEPT - A CROSS-CULTURAL EXAMINATION

By observing the dissonance-arousing capabilities of product selection in two countries (United States and Finland), the authors examine the supposition that the pervasive consumerism in modern society has impl ications for people's self-conceptions. Participants were 18- to 22-ye ar-old students of both sexes. Subjects were forced to select between two magazines they initially indicated were less desirable. Dissonance was measured by the change in magazine evaluations from pre- to postc hoice. For the American subjects, postdecisional dissonance was more c onsistent for image magazines (which contain more consumerism-relevant information) than for news magazines. In addition, postdecisional dis sonance for the image magazines was greater for the American sample th an for the Finnish sample, and it was positively correlated with measu res of consumer orientation only for the American sample.