The purpose of this paper was to examine the effects of asserting obviousness of the advocated position, which had been used as threat to attitudinal freedom. Most of the subjects held an initial position, which was consistent with the advocated position. The high threat communication was sprinkled with statements such as "there is no question about it," or "I think it's obvious that ・・・." The low threat form simply omitted the threatening statements. Subjects were asked post-communication belief and were told to list all thoughts that occurred to them during the communication and to classify them. Firstly, the no-question statements were perceived as no threat to attitudinal freedom, and increased belief change toward the advocated position among the subjects who had strongly agreeded it (compliance effect). Secondly, the no-question statements were perceived as threat to freedom to question, and increased doubts and counterarguments among the subjects who had expected freedom to question (reactance effect). These results suggested that the effects of no-question statements could be different from those which reactance theory had originally predicted.
