A purported individual “personality” assessment of male and female college students resulted in communications that showed standings on either a positive (masculinity or femininity) or a negative (hostility) personality characteristic that were discrepant from Ss' initial self-ratings. Post-communication self-ratings showed acceptance of the negative communication, and failure of the positive communication to have an effect. Degree of communication discrepancy did not affect the results. Two replications of the study, one with a male and the other with a female communicator, were carried out.
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