The Effects of Deadline Pressure on Attitudinal Ambivalence

This article examines how attitudinal ambivalence, derived from the positive and negative evaluations associated with an attitude toward a behavior, that has an explicit deadline, fluctuates as a deadline becomes imminent. Using a longitudinal design, it was shown that as a deadline for performing a behavior becomes imminent, the level of ambivalence associated with the behavior increased significantly. Such an increase was not realized for a control group that was assessed longitudinally but without the presence of an imminent deadline. In addition, we provide evidence that the increase in ambivalence as a deadline approaches is driven primarily by the increased salience of negative factors associated with the behavior.