"72 Ss were induced to engage in debates on 3 different issues, taking sides opposite to those which they had indicated as their own in an opinion pretest. Half of the Ss were rewarded, in a predetermined order, by a purported vote which proclaimed them the better debators, while the other half were punished by presumably losing the debate. Posttests of Ss' opinions showed a tendency of the 'winners' to change their opinions in the direction of their debates, while the 'losers' did not change significantly. A control group of nondebators likewise showed no significant change in opinions." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)