Mere Exposure, Psychological Reactance and Attitude Change

To examine the relationship between mere exposure, psychologicalreactance and attitude change, 115 college students receivedeither no exposure, moderate exposure or excessive exposureto a political message. Results indicated positive evaluationto the message under moderate exposure but negative evaluationunder excessive exposure. A delayed post-test indicated thatthe negative evaluation after excessive exposure improved overtime. Psychological reactance was suggested as a possible explanationfor the findings.