Leon Festinger and James M. Carlsmith (1959) conducted an experiment entitled "Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance".
In summary, the study demonstrated that when individuals experience a conflict of cognition they will tend to shift their private belief to reduce dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance theory describes the unpleasant feeling that results from believing two contrary ideas at the same time.
[clarification needed] Helmreich and Collins conducted an experiment entitled "Studies in Forced Compliance: Commitment and Magnitude of Inducement to Comply as Determinants of Opinion Change".
This study consisted of sixty-sixty male college students who were asked to record a counter-attitudinal statement concerning a serious issue.
For the two highest levels of commitment (identified video recordings) participants who received low pay exhibited more attitude change.
However, within the lower commitment level (anonymous audio recording) participants, higher pay yielded more attitude change.
The study built on previous research that stated when individuals are not granted the freedom to agree or disagree with the task, signs of dissonance are not detected.