Social psychology

Organic chemistry

Psychology

Chemistry

Clinical psychology

Group (periodic table)

Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology

An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that persons who undergo an unpleasant initiation to become members of a group increase their liking for the group; that is, they find the group more attractive than do persons who become members without going through a severe initiation. This hypothesis was derived from Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance. 3 conditions were employed: reading of null null before a group, mildly embarrassing material to be read, no reading. The results clearly verified the hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

The effect of severity of initiation on liking for a group.