Irrational Beliefs and Response Sets
Ellis (2) proposed that emotional disturbances are primarily caused by the implicit assumption of certain irrational cognitions together with self-indoctrination. Diagnosed neurotics tend to endorse more of these irrational beliefs than do undiagnosed individuals (4). Also, there seems to be a greater likelihood of church-attending men (but not church-attending women) to acknowledge these beliefs than do those who are nonattenders (3). This church attendance-gender association with irrational ideas suggests that these irrational belief statements (when unlabeled as such) might be perceived as propositions with which agreement is seen as desirable. Sixty-four male and 95 female students enrolled in general psychology classes responded to the list of Ellis' irrational beliefs under two response sets: one set had the individual express his own opinion and the other set had him respond in a way "to make the most favorable impression." The mean number of irrational beliefs checked by men under the "own opinion" set was 2.97 (SD = 1.81) and that by women was 2.62 (SD = 1.60); gender differences in these means were nonsignificant (t~sr = 1.29). On the other hand, men checked more of these irrational ideas than did women when responding under the "favorable impression" set (CIS, = 3.12, < .01); the means were 5.14 (SD = 2.77) and 3.81 (SD = 2.53), respectively. Significantly more irrational beliefs were endorsed by both sexes under the "favorable impression" set; tlm = 6.18 (p < .001) for men and t~ss = 4.64 (p < .001) for women. People who endorsed more irrational beliefs on the "own opinion" set tended also to endorse more of these on the "favorable impression" set; r = .277 for men (df = 62, p < .05) and .340 for women (df = 93, p < .01). Apparently, these statemena designated by Ellis (2) as "irrational beliefs" have a strong positive valence as socially desirable opinions, possibly due to their definiteness. This may have in turn some implications for psychotherapy using a rational-emotive approach. Also, the gender differences under the "favorable impression" set may be a consequence of a perception held by many of the men chat making unequivocal statements reflecting their opinions or beliefs can further a favorable impression. Over-all sex differences in the social desirability motive do exist (1); these results suggest moreover that men and women may perceive somewhat different effects when one's opinions are used as devices for eliciting positive impressions. Alternatively, the sexes may in general have different perceptions regarding belief norm.