Observers either received Bem's (1965) instructions or not and read a description of an actor's compliance with either a discrepant or consonant essay request for either $.50 or $4.50. The three-way interaction indicated that observers receiving Bem's instructions discriminated actor's attitude as a function of both essay position and incentive cues, while in the absence of Bem's instructions incentive magnitude had no effect on observers' inferences. Since all observers perceived the general relationship between incentive and compliance, Bem's instructions may increase the salience of situational cues for observers in line with the implications of Jones & Nisbett (1972) and Storms (1973).
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References
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