Self-esteem, trivialization, and attitude change

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between trivialization and self-esteem. Low-self-esteem participants were expected to reduce cognitive dissonance by trivialization. In this experiment, dissonance was aroused by having participants write a counter-attitudinal essay. In the post-experimental phase, both the participants' attitude and trivialization were measured. The order of presentation of the variables was manipulated (attitude first vs. trivialization first). The results showed that participants with low self-esteem did not change their attitude and trivialized. These results limit the scope of the self-consistency view proposing that only participants with high self-esteem feel dissonance.