Being hypocritical disturbs some people more than others: How individual differences in preference for consistency moderate the behavioral effects of the induced-hypocrisy paradigm

This article examines whether individual differences in preference for consistency (PFC) affect the behavioral change in the induced-hypocrisy paradigm. Undergraduate students (N=108) completed the PFC scale either 1month (no PFC-focus condition) or immediately before (PFC-focus condition) the induced-hypocrisy procedure; this procedure includes pro-social advocacy, transgression recall, and a behavioral change measure. Results demonstrated (1) that PFC-level predicts behavioral change only when the participants were focused on their own PFC and (2) a relationship between the number of recalled transgressions and behavioral change only for high-PFC participants in PFC-focus condition. The necessity of considering simultaneously PFC-level, PFC-focus, and the number of recalled transgressions to better predict behavioral change in the hypocrisy-paradigm, is discussed.