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 implications for people's self-conceptions. Participants were 18- to 22-year-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 postchoice. For the American subjects, postdecisional dissonance was more consistent for image magazines (which contain more consumerism-relevant information) than for news magazines. In addition, postdecisional dissonance for the image magazines was greater for the American sample than for the Finnish sample, and it was positively correlated with measures of consumer orientation only for the American sample.