Abstract
Implicit cognitive equilibrium. The classic theories of cognitive consistency were re-analyzed based on the new theoretical and methodological perspectives of implicit social cognition. According with this view, when an attitude changes, the strength with which the attitude object becomes associated with the valence (positive or negative) is modified. It is postulated that because of the central role played by the "Self" in the semantic representation net, when an attitude changes, people will tend to keep cognitive equilibrium by changing the relationship between the attitude object and the "Self". In the present research that hypothesis was empirically tested by assessing the impact of manipulating the automatic evaluation between different stimuli on the "Self". Specifically, the more favorable the induced implicit attitudes, the greater the association between the attitude object and the self.
