Several years ago a selfpolarization effect for stored (anti‐) protons and ions was investigated theoretically. The effect is based on the well‐known Stern‐Gerlach effect in gradient fields. The aim of the ongoing measurements at IUCF is to verify experimentally the various assumptions on which this effect is based. The final goal is to demonstrate this new polarization effect. The proposed effect could be a powerful tool to produce polarized stored hadron beams both in the low energy range and at SSC and LHC energies.