Abstract
The resultant attitudes of college students toward the draft lottery were used in an empirical check on Heider's cognitive imbalance theory. Support for the theory was found in comparing a control group, unaffected by the lottery, with a directly affected experimental group. The means of the first-to-be drafted in the experimental group were significantly smaller than those of the first-to-be drafted in the control group and showed that the first-to-be drafted shifted toward disliking the lottery. The means of the intermediate-to-be drafted in the experimental group did not differ significantly from those of the intermediate-to-be drafted in the control group and suggested little attitude change for these individuals. The means of the last-to-be drafted in the experimental group were significantly greater than those of the last-to-be drafted in the control group and indicated that the last-to-be drafted shifted toward liking the lottery. These results were interpreted as supporting Heider's imbalance theory.
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