Chapter 5: Self-Justification

Question 1

Define:

self-justification

Answer 1

The process of giving explanations for our feelings and actions.

• e.g. Hamuna Prasad studied a village in India who felt tremors from a neighbouring village but were not in imminent danger. They spread rumours that there would be great destruction and natural disasters. Because there was not ample justification for the village’s fear, they invented their own justifications. Thus, they were not compelled to feel foolish.

Question 2

Define:

cognitive dissonance

Self-Justification

Answer 2

A state of tension that occurs whenever an individual simultaneously holds two cognitions (ideas, attitudes, beliefs, opinions) that are psychologically inconsistent.

Question 3

How do we reduce cognitive dissonance?

Self-Justification

Answer 3

In order to convince ourselves that our lives aren’t absurd, we have to change one or both of the conflicting cognitions in such a way as to render them more compatible with each other, or add more cognitions that help bridge the gap between the original cognitions.

• This picture paints people not as rational beings, but as rationalizing beings. The assumptions of this theory are that humans aren’t as motivated to be right as we are to believe we are right.

Question 4

What did Jones and Kohler demonstrate in regards to the negative consequences of ego-defensive behaviour, using racial segregation?

Dissonance Reduction and Rational Behaviour

Answer 4

Participants were either pro- or anti-segregation, and read arguments from the opposing side that were either very logical or very illogical. A purely logical person would only hold onto the logical arguments from either side. However, cognitive dissonance theory would predict that people will hold onto logical arguments for their own side and illogical arguments for the opposing side. This is exactly what Jones and Kohler found.

Question 5

What did Lord, Ross, and Lepper demonstrate in regards to distorting information, using capital punishment?

Dissonance Reduction and Rational Behaviour

Answer 5

The investigators selected Stanford University students who opposed and favoured capital punishment. They were shown two research articles that discussed whether or not the death penalty deters violent crimes. The articles either confirmed or denied the participant’s beliefs. A perfectly rational person would conclude that it’s a complex issue, and may move closer to the other side. On the other hand, cognitive dissonance theory would predict that peope will distort information from the other side by finding methodological or conceptual flaws and refusing to accept it. This is precisely what happened.

Question 6

Using the example of buying a car, demonstrate how one reduces dissonance after making a decision.

Answer 6

• Suppose you’re choosing between an SUV and a compact car. Before you make this decision, you research a lot of information. You weigh the pros and cons of both, you may read reviews, you may even read Consumer Reports, or ask your friends who own these types of cars. All of this predicision behaviour is perfectly rational. Next, you decide to buy the compact car. All of a sudden, you start spending more time talking to small car owners. You’ll upshoot the positives while downplaying the negatives.
• Following a decision, people almost always experience dissonance. This is because the chosen alternative is seldom entirely positive, and the rejected options seldom entirely negative. After making decisions, people try to gain reassurance that their decisions were wise by seeking information that is certain to be reassuring.
• With the cars, your cognition that you bought a compact is dissonant with your cognition about any deficiencies the car may have. A good way to reduce dissonance is to reduce the negative information you receive while seeking out positive information.

Question 7

What did Brehm demostrate in regards to decision making dissonance with ratings of household appliances?

Answer 7

• In this experiment, several women were shown eight different household appliances and told to rate them. Each was told she could have one as a gift at the end. She was given a choice out of two she had rated equally highly. After she chose one and it was wraped up and given to her, she was asked to rate the appliances again. This time, she increased the rating of the one she chose and decreased the rating of the one she passed up.
• Cognitions about any negative aspects of the preferred object are dissonant with having chosen it, and cognitions about the positive aspects of the unchosen object and dissonant with not having chosen it. That is why the women tried to reduce their dissonance after making a decision.

Question 8

What did Johnson and Rusbult demonstrate in regards to decision making in romantic relationships?

Answer 8

In this study, college students were asked to evaluate the probable success of a new computer dating service on campus. They were asked to rate the attractiveness of people in photos, who they were told were signed up for the dating service. The more committed the participant was to their relationship, the lower they rated attractiveness. This result demonstrates that once a firm commitment has been made, people tend to focus on the positive aspects of their choices and downplay the attractive qualities of unchosen alternatives.

Question 9

Define:

foot-in-the-door technique

The Consequences of Decisions: Some Historical Examples

Answer 9

When you first ask someone for a smaller favour so that they are more likely to do a larger favour.

Question 10

How did Knox and Inkster demonstrate the importance of irrevocability in decision making, with their study on race tracks?

Answer 10

The researchers went to the race track and intercepted people who were on their way to place $2 bets and asked them how certain they were about their bet. At this point, their decisions were not irrevocable. They also approached betters who were leaving the betting window, meaning their decisions are irrevocable. Typically, people who had just placed their bets were more confident about their horse winning than those who were just about to.

Question 11

What did Gilbert demonstrate in regards to the effects of irrevocability on decision making in a photography class?

Answer 11

In this study, participants were recruited through an ad for those interested in photography and being in a psychology experiment. The students had to shoot a roll of film and print two. They would rate them both and choose one to keep. The other would be kept for administrative reasons. Students were assigned one of two random conditions: one where their choice was irrevocable, and one where they could exchange the photograph within a five-day period. The experiment showed that students who had the option to exchange their photos liked their final choice less than those whose decisions were irrevocable.

• Once a final decision is made, people can get busy making themselves feel good about the choice they made. People frequently become more certain that they have made a wise decision after there’s nothing they can do about it.

Question 12

Define:

lowballing

The Importance of Irrevocability

Answer 12

A common sale strategy where people will give you a lower quote at first, then return with a higher number.

• In this situation, the customer’s decision to buy something is reversible, but the commitment is emphasized by something like signing a cheque.
• The commitment also triggers a sense of anticipation for a pleasant experience (e.g. driving out with a cool new car).
• It is also usually common that, although the new price is much higher than originally expected, the price is only a bit higher than at other places.
• This technique would not be very effective if the consequences were somewhat higher.

Question 13

How can an honest person become corrupt? Conversely, how can we get a person to be more honest?

The Importance of Irrevocability

Answer 13

We can reduce the dissonance that results from making a difficult decision.

• For example, if you’re a student taking a final exam and your grade hinges on this mark, you may be tempted to cheat if you draw a blank on an important question.
• If you cheat, you’ll exeprience dissonance between “I am a good person” and “I have just committed an immoral act.” If you don’t cheat, you’ll experience dissonance between “I want good grades” and “I could’ve done something to get a good grade but chose not to.”
• Two people acting in the two different ways could have started out with almost identical attitudes, separated by a hairbreadth.

Question 14

What did Mills demonstrate in regards to attitudes towards moral behaviour with a competitive exam?

The Importance of Irrevocability

Answer 14

In this experiment, sixth-graders were given an exam that was impossible to pass without cheating. It was also made easy for the students to cheat. Some did and some didn’t. The next day, they were asked about their attitudes towards cheating. Those who had cheated became more lenient towards cheating and those who hadn’t adopted a harsher attitude.

• This experiment suggests that the most zealous opponents of a given position aren’t those who have always been distant fro the position. That is, those who have had the strongest need to crack down on certain behaviours are those who have been sorely tempted and almost given in themselves.

Question 15

Define:

external justification

The Psychology of Inadequate Justification

Answer 15

A justification baed on the situation.

• For example, if Joe walks into his office and sees that Mary has hung a very ugly painting, he may want to tell her that it’s ugly. But then she says, “Do you like this painting? I made it last night at my art lesson.” Joe replies, “It’s very nice.”
• In this situation, Joe may experience dissonance between “I am a truthful person” and “I just lied to Mary.” His discomfort can be quickly justified by saying, “I lied so I don’t jurt Joyce, why should I tell her it’s ugly? It serves no purpose.”

Question 16

Define:

internal justification

The Psychology of Inadequate Justification

Answer 16

Trying to reduce dissonance by convincing yourself that what happened is not very far from the truth.

• A person will turn to internal justification if external justification fails.
• For example, Joe is at a party with many strangers who are conservative. He is conservative himself, but if conflicted when it comes to Cuba-US relations. He hears people saying that the US shouldn’t associate with Cuba, and suddenly attempts to defend Castro despite not being a zealous communist himself. The next morning, Joe is striken with embarassment. He first tries to look for an external justification, but he realizes he didn’t even have that many drinks last night. so he turns to internal justification. This doesn’t mean he’ll turn into a passionate communist, but he may start to look into the events that have taken place in Cuba with more care.

Question 17

What is the:

• “saying is believing” paradigm*
• The Psychology of Inadequate Justification*

Answer 17

Dissonance theory predicts that we begin to believe our own lies, but only if there is not abundant external justification for making the statements that run counter to our original attitudes.

• For example, Joe, a conservative, is pulled aside at a party and told to justify Castro to other hardliner conservatives for $5000. Joe does this, takes the money, and wakes up the next morning feeling it was very worth it. He may experience dissonance between “I said things I don’t believe” and “I’m a truthful person,” but he has a very adequate external justification for doing so.

Question 18

What role does reward play in attitude change?

The Psychology of Inadequate Justification

Answer 18

When it comes to producing a lasting change in attitude, the greater the reward, the less likely any attitude change will occur.

• Conversely, the smaller the external reward, the more likely someone will be forced to seek additional justification for acting in a way that produces dissonance. This would result in an actual change in attitude rather than mere compliance.

Question 19

How did Festinger and Carlsmith demonstrate the “saying is believing” paradigm with their experiment using dull tasks?

The Psychology of Inadequate Justification

Answer 19

In this experiment, college students were told to perform very boring tasks for an hour. Afterwards, they were asked to lie to an incoming participant and say that the task they have to do is enjoyable. They were offered either $1 or $20 to lie. Afterwards, researchers asked the participants how much they enjoyed the earlier tasks. As predicted, people who were given $20 still said the tasks were dull, but those who were given $1 actually found it to be enjoyable. In the absence of a great deal of external justification, these people moved towards the line of internalizing and believing what they said was true.

Question 20

Define:

counter-attitudinal advocacy

The Psychology of Inadequate Justification

Answer 20

Publicly endorsing a controversial topic.

Question 21

How did Leippe and Eisenstadt demonstrate counter-attitudinal advocacy by getting students to write essays on increasing scholarships for African American students?

The Psychology of Inadequate Justification

Answer 21

Researchers had white college students write an essay endorsing the doubling of scholarship funds available to African American students. Because the total amount of scholarships is limited, this would mean cutting the amount of scholarships for white students in half. This was a highly dissonant situation, and the students reduced this dissonance by convincing themselves that they really believed in the policy. In the long run, dissonance reduction generalized and their attitudes towards African Americans even became more favourable and supportive.

Question 22

What constitutes external justification? Use the example of grasshoppers.

The Psychology of Inadequate Justification

Answer 22

Suppose that someone asked you to eat a grasshopper. Now imagine that it was your friend who had learned to prepare it in their “exotic foods” cooking class. Now imagine that it was someone you didn’t like. Common sense may suggest that you would like it more if you ate it at the request of a friend. But think about it: Which condition involves less external justification? According to cognitive dissonance theory, you have more external justification for eating the grasshopper given to you by your friend than by someone you don’t like. In the case of eating a grasshopper from someone you don’t like, you could reduce dissonance by changing your attitude towards grasshoppers and liking them better.

Question 23

What are adequate and abundant justification? Refer to studies by Festinger and Carlsmith, and Mills.

The Psychology of Inadequate Justification

Answer 23

• In the Festinger-Carlsmith experiment, all of the participants agreed to tell the lie, including those given only $1. Thus, $1 provided them with an adequate justification.
• In Mills’s experiment, the decision about whether to cheat was a difficult one for most of the children. One could speculate about what would happen if the rewards to be gained by cheating were very large. If these children had been provided with a greater reward, that is an abundance of external justification, they would have less need to reduce dissonance.

Question 24

When are dissonance effects greatest?

The Psychology of Inadequate Justification

Answer 24

1. When people feel personally responsible for their actions.
2. Their actions have serious consequences.

The greater the consequence and our responsibility for it, the greater the dissonance; the greater the dissonance, the greater our own attitude change.

Question 25

How did Cialdini and Schroeder demonstrate that dissonance is aroused whenever the self-concept is challenged?

The Psychology of Inadequate Justification

Answer 25

In this experiment, students acting as fundraisers went door-to-doot, sometimes just asking for donations and other times adding, “even a penny will help.” As hypothesized, those given the penny statement were twice as likely to contribute. Furthermore, on average, they were more likely to give twice as much. This is because after the penny statement aroused their desire to not be seen as cheap, actually just donating a penny would make them seem stingy and they were thus compelled to make a larger donation to appear generous.

Question 26

How did Deci demonstrate the insufficient-reward phenomenon as applied to education, using a puzzle experiment?

The Psychology of Inadequate Justification

Answer 26

In an experiment, college students worked individually on an interesting puzzle for an hour. The next day, students in the experimental condition were paid $1 for each piece of the puzzle the completed. The control group did the same, but with no pay. During the third session, neither were paid. The question is: How much did each group like the puzzle? This was measured by noting whether the students worked on the puzzle during a free-time break. The unrewarded group spent more free time on the task than the rewarded group.

Question 27

What is the difference between using prizes and using praises as rewards?

The Psychology of Inadequate Justification

Answer 27

• Praise can be beneficial but only if it’s done in moderation. If praise creates the illusion that the reason they performed the acitivity was to receive praise, then children won’t learn to enjoy the activity itself.
• By the same token, if emphasis is placed on competition, children’s focus will be on winning rather than doing, and thus won’t enjoy what they’re doing.
• Praise is most effective if it’s focussed on the child itself rather than their talent or ability. That is, if children are praised for their effort, they learn that when the going gets tough the tough get going, since hard work results in better performance. But if they’re praised for being smart, when they face a difficult situation they’ll usually think, “I’m not as smart as people thought I was.” This can have devastating consequences.

Question 28

How did Aronson and Carlsmith demonstrate the relationship between insufficient punishment, dissonance, and attitude change with their experiment using the attractiveness of toys?

The Psychology of Inadequate Justification

Answer 28

In this experiment, 5-year-olds were asked to rate the attractiveness of several toys. They were told that they couldn’t play with the toys they rated as most attractive. They threatened half the children with mild punishment (e.g. “I would be a little angry”) and half with more severe punishment (e.g. “I would be very angry; I would think you’re just a baby”). The researchers left the room, and all the children resisted the temptation to play with the forbidden toy. The researchers returned and asked the children to rate the attractiveness of the toys again. Those who were given mild punishment rated the toy as less attractive. Since they had little external justification not to play with it, they had to internally justify and change their attitude towards the toy. Conversely, those given severe punishment rated the toy as just as attractive as before, if not more attractive.

Question 29

How did Freedman expand on the Aronson and Carlsmith experiment using the attractive toy?

The Psychology of Inadequate Justification

Answer 29

In this experiment, children were presented with a bunch of toys that were very boring and a robot that was really cool. They were all told not to play with the robot, with some receiving mild and some severe punishment. The researcher then left and never came back. Weeks later, a different researcher came back to administer some tests. The children had no idea she was working for the previous researcher. While they were waiting for the tests to be scored, they were in the same room with the dull toys and cool robot. The children were allowed to play with all the toys. Sure enough, the children who had received mild punishment still didn’t want to play with the robot, while those who received severe punishment did.

Question 30

How did Aronson and Mills demonstrate the justification of effort with their experiment using different degrees of severity for an initiation?

Answer 30

In this experiment, women were told that they were being recruited into a group that could have open discussions about the psychology of sex. One third were assigned to a severe initiation procedure, which required them to recite aloud a list of obscene words. One third underwent mild initation, in which they recited words that were sexual but not obscene. The final one third didn’t have an intiation. They then listened to a recording of a very boring discussion, which they were told was a live discussion of they group they just joined. Participants were asked to rate how exciting the conversation was. As predicted, those who went through no or mild initiation didn’t enjoy it much. Those who went through severe initation succeeded in convincing themselves the discussion was interesting and worthwhile.

Question 31

Define:

justification of effort

Answer 31

When an individual goes through a difficult or painful experience in order to attain some goal or object, that goal or object becomes more attractive.

Question 32

How did Conway and Ross demonstrate the tendency to revise our memory of the past in a justification of effort, using a useless study skills course?

Answer 32

In this study, one group of students participated in a study skills course that promised more than it delivered; another group signed up but didn’t participate. Both groups were asked to evaluate their study skills. After three weeks of the useless program, those participating wanted to believe their skills had improved, despite objective evidence showing they weren’t. In order to reduce their dissonance, they underestimated (misremembered) the skills they had before enrolling in the course. Students who only signed up didn’t show this self-justifying behaviour. In other words, one way for people to get what they want is to revise what they had.

Question 33

How did Davis and Jones explore the justification of cruetly by studying attitudes before and after dissonance-arousing events, with participants watching an interview?

Answer 33

In this experiment, students watched another student being interviewed. After the interview, they told the other student they were shallow, untrustworthy, and dull. The majority of finding in this experiment was that participants succeeded in convincing themselves they didn’t like the victim of their cruelty. In order words, they convinced themselves that the other student deserved it—they found him less attractive than they did before they hurt him. This shift occured despite the participant knowing the other student did nothing to warrant their criticism, and that their cruelty was only in response to the experimenter’s instructions.

Question 34

How did Glass demonstrate the effect of self-esteem on the justification of cruelty, using their experiment where participants delivered electric shocks?

Answer 34

In this study, participants were asked to induce shocks to other people. Individuals who considered theselves as good and decent people derogated the victims as having caused and deserved their pain. This result was clearest among people with high self-esteem—if I’m a good person, then you must’ve done something to deserve this suffering. It’s ironic that precisely because one thinks they’re a nice person, if they do something bad to someone else they must convince themselves the other person is bad.

Question 35

How did Berscheid demonstrate the effect of the victim’s ability to retaliate on the justification of cruelty with her experiment using electric shocks?

Answer 35

In this experiment, college students volunteered for an experiment in which one of them delivered a painful electric shock to another. As expected, each participant derogated the victim after delivering the shock. But half the students were told that the other students would be given an opportunity to shock them. Those who were led to believe their victims could retaliate didn’t derogate them. Dissonance was reduced because the harm-doers had no need to believe their victims deserved the cruelty.

Question 36

How did Brehm demonstrate the ways people will try to minimize the unpleasantness of a situation by getting children to eat vegetables they don’t like?

The Psychology of Inevitability

Answer 36

In this experiment, children volunteered to eat a vegetable they previously stated that they disliked a lot. After they ate the vegetable, the researcher told half the kids they could expect to eat more of the vegetable in the future, and didn’t tell the other half that. The children who were told succeeded in convincing themselves that the vegetable wasn’t so bad. They experienced dissonance between “I dislike that vegetable” and “I’ll be eating it in the future,” so they had to tell themselves it wasn’t so bad to reduce dissonance.

Question 37

Why did Lehman and Taylor’s findings about earthquake preparation show how disastrous the psychology of inevitability can be?

Answer 37

• In the mid-1980s, there was a 90% probability that at least one major earthquake would hit LA in the next 20 years. When researchers interviewed students at UCLA in 1987, they found that only 5% of the 120 students had taken any safety precautions.
• It is interesting to note that those who lived in relatively unsafe residence halls were more likely to cope with the impending disaster by refusing to think about it. In order to justify living in a dangerous location when you know there’s going to be an earthquake, you have to minimize the damage and not think about the potential effects.
• These self-justifying responses to dangerous and inevitable events can be comforting in the short-run, but can become deadly in the long-run if people don’t take precautions.
• In such a deadly inevitable situation, it’s hard to convince oneself that the outcome could be desirable. Since we can’t control the situation either, our response will depend on whether we believe preventative measures will actually work. If we think safety precautions are futile, we’re more likely to not waste our energy and efforts and justify our actions by reducing the magnitude of the damage.

Question 38

Is dissonance reduction unconscious? What are the consequences of this?

The Psychology of Inevitability

Answer 38

• Dissonance reduction is unconscious. We rarely sit down and think, “I guess I’ll reduce some dissonance now.”
• And because dissonance reduction happens unconsciously, we don’t anticipate that it’ll save us from future angst, so we predict that the next time something unpleasant happens to us our pain will be greater and longer lasting than it’ll actually turn out to be.
• One consequence of this is that we tend to experience far less regret than we think we will if we make the “wrong” decision. But, over time, we find reasons to feel good about our choices. It’s not to say we never feel regret, but it’s surprising how infrequently we actually do.

Question 39

How did Aronson and Mettee test if individuals who had low self-esteem would be more likely to cheat (if given the opportunity)?

Answer 39

With this experiment, researchers wanted to test whether normal people who receive a temporary blow to their self-esteem (e.g. if they fail and exam) are more likely to cheat at cards, kick their dog, or do any number of things that are consistent with a low opinion of themselves. As a function of feeling they’re low pepople, they’ll commit low acts. In this experiment, college students were given false information about their personalities to temporarily modify their self-esteem. Participants were asked to take a personality test. Afterwards, one third were told positive results, one third negative results, and one third received no feedback about the results. Immediately after that, they were sent to participate in a seemingly completely unrelated experiment being conducted by a different psychologist. In this second experiment, they were playing a card game where they bet money and could win a large prize. At some point, an opportunity is presented to cheat without being detected. As well, if they don’t cheat at this point, winning becomes impossible. It was found that students who received negative feedback cheated to a far greater extent than those who received positive feedback. Students with no feedback fell exactly in between.

Question 40

How do the differences between high self-esteem and narcissism relate to dissonance theory? Refer to the experiment with a noise machine by Baumeister, Bushman, and Campbell.

Answer 40

When self-esteem is not grounded in reality or based on a false sense of superiority to others (narcissism), if this peron receives criticism, they will lash out against their critic in an attempt to get even and restore their threatened self-image. In one experiment, participants were asked to write an essay and have it critiqued by a partner. After they received the feedback, participants were given the opportunity to express hostility against their partners by blasting them with an unpleasant noise. The people who turned the noise-maker up to the highest decibel level were also those who scored highest on self-esteem and narcissism.

Question 41

Are people participating in cognitive dissonance experiments actually experiencing discomfort, or is it a matter of self-perception?

Answer 41

• Bem suggested that people who undergo attitude and behaviour change in dissonance experiments may simply be observing their own behaviour and drawing a conclusion from their observations, rather than experiencing discomfort and being motivated to justify themselves.
• Bem was only partially right, in that self-perception operates in those situations when a person doesn’t have a clear, unambiguous belief to begin with. When a person has a fairly clear initial belief, then discomfort and threats to the self-concept do come into play.
• Elliot and Devine found that when people are put in a dissonance-arousing situation, they do indeed report feeling more agitated and uncomfortable than those in the control condition.
• Pallak and Pittman demonstrated that people experiencing dissonance perform a complex task more poorly than people who don’t. The people experiencing dissonance show the same decrease in performance as those who are in dire uncomfortable states such as extreme thirst or hunger.
• Zanna and Cooper conducted an experiment with a placebo pill. Some participants were told it would arouse them, others relaxed. Participants in the control condition were told it wouldn’t affect them at all. They were then asked to write a counter-attitudinal essay, creating dissonance. Researchers found that participants in the control condition underwent considerable attitude change, whereas participants in the arousal condition did not, since they attributed their discomfort to the pill. Participants in the relaxed condition showed even more attitude change than the control participants. They concluded that writing the counter-attitudinal essay made them very tense despite being given a relaxing drug.
• Neuroscientists have also shown that cognitive dissonance is unpleasant and restoring consonance brings pleasure.

Question 42

What are the physiological and motivational effects of dissonance? Refer to the experiments by Zimbardo and Brehm.

Answer 42

• Zimbardo subjected many people to intense electric shocks. Half were in a high-dissonance condition, and half in a low-dissonance condition. The results showed that people in the high-dissonance condition reported experiecing less pain. This extended beyond subjective reports. The physiological response to pain (as measured by the galvanic skin response) was also lower.
• Brehm conducted a series of experiments in which people were deprived of either food or water for long periods, and were in either high- or low-dissonance conditions. For the participants experiencing great dissonance, the best available way to reduce it was to minize the experience of hunger or thirst. After the experiment, all of the participants were allowed to eat or drink freely, and those in the high-dissonance condition actually consumed less.

Question 43

How did Axsom and Cooper prove that reducing dissonance can help increase weight loss?

Practical Applications of Dissonance Theory

Answer 43

Researchers hypothesized that expending a great deal of effort to reach an objective would increase a person’s commitment to the goal. In this experiment, overweight women were recruited to volunteer for a weight-control program. They were given tasks that required either a small or large amount of effort, which were completely unrelated to weight loss. After 4 weeks, no significant weight loss was seen in either group. But 6 and 12 months later, researchers discovered that those in the high-effort group lost on average 8 pounds, while those in the low-effort group still hadn’t lost any weight.

Question 44

How did Aronson use dissonance and hypocrisy in an experiment about AIDS and condom use?

Practical Applications of Dissonance Theory

Answer 44

Although many college students know that AIDS is an epidemic and that they should wear condoms, very few actually do. In an experiment, researchers asked college students to compose a speech on the dangers of AIDS and advocating for the use of condoms “every single time you have sex.” In one condition, the students composed the argument. In another condition, students recited their arguments for a video that would be sent to a high-school sex-ed class. Prior to making the speech, half these students were reminded of their own past failures to use condoms by making a list of all the circumstances in which they failed to use a condom. These participants were in a state of high dissonance by becoming aware of their own hypocrisy. To remove the hypocrisy and maintain their self-esteem, students would need to start practicing what they preach.

Question 45

How did Aronson use dissonance to reduce water consumption on his camps?

Practical Applications of Dissonance Theory

Answer 45

In this experiment, students were intercepted on their way to the showers. Researchers varied both commitment and mindfulness. In the commitment condition, students were asked to sign a poster which said: “Take shorter shows. If I can do it, so can you!” In the mindfulness condition, students filled out a survey designed to make them aware of both their proconservation attitudes and wasteful behaviours. A researcher in the showers then timed each person’s shower. When the students were induced to advocate for shorter showers and made mindful of their behaviour, they became aware that they weren’t practicing what they preached and experienced dissonance. In this condition, the average shower was just over 3.5 minutes, and was far shorter than in control conditions.

Question 46

How did Jim Jones use the foot-in-the-door technique to induce his cult followers to commit the massacre at Jonestown?

Practical Applications of Dissonance Theory

Answer 46

Jones was a charismatic leader who had no problem getting church members to donating a small amount of money in response to his message of peace and brotherhood. Next, they donate a lot more. Next, Jones induces them to sell their houses and give the money to the church. Soon, at his request, members are pulling up the stakes and leaving their friends and family to start a new life. In this new community of Jonestown, they work hard, thus increasing their commitment, and are cut off from dissenting opinions. Finally, as a prelude to the climactic event, Jones induces his followers to perform a series of mock ritual suicides as a test of their loyalty and obedience. In this step-by-step fashion, the commitment to Jones increases. Each step is not in itself a huge leap from the one preceding it.

Question 47

Was Osama bin Laden capitalizing on dissonance?

Practical Applications of Dissonance Theory

Answer 47

After 9/11, Friedman ventured to explain the attack. He suggested that there are thousands of young Muslim men all over the Middle East and Europe who were suffering from a loss of dignity. From a young age, they are taught that Islam is superior to all other religions. Yet, they can see that the Islamic world has fallen behind the Christian West and Jewish state in education, science, democracy, and development. They experience dissonance with their faith, and thus see America as the force that’s trying to drive Muslims into the ground, or keeping un-Islamic leaders in power. Thus, America is an evil that needs to be weakened, and, if possible, destroyed. So why not resort to suicide bombings?

Question 48

How universal is the experience of cognitive dissonance? Refer to the experiment by Sakai that replicates Festinger and Carlsmith.

Dissonance Reduction and Culture

Answer 48

Although most of the dissonance research has been done in North America, the effects have been shown to exist in every other part of the world where the research has been done. However, the effects are different. For example, in less individualistic societies, dissonance-reducing behaviours might take a more communal form. Sakai replicated Festinger and Carlsmith’s experiment, where participants were asked to lie for either $1 or $20, in Japan. As in the original experiment, she found that people who told the lie (that the boring task is interesting) for minimal reward came to believe the task is interesting. In addition, observers who see their friends saying the task is interesting come to believe it too. That is, they tended to bring their evaluation in line with a lie their friend has told.

Question 49

How can we increase the probability of reacting to mistakes in a non-defensive manner?

“Man” Cannot Live by Consonance Alone

Answer 49

• Through a geater understanding of our defensiveness and dissonance-reducing tendencies.
• Through the realization that performing stupid or immoral actions doesn’t necessarily mean we’re irrevocably stupid or immoral people.
• Through the development of enough ego strength to tolerate errors within ourselves.
• Through increasing our ability to recognize the benefits of admitting our errors in terms of our own growth and learning, as well as our ability to form close, meaningful relationships with others.