Chapter 6 The Need to Justify Our Actions: The Costs and Benefits of Dissonance Reduction

Question 1

explain the Heaven’s gate cult

Answer 1

Heaven’s Gate Cult (cult that believed the second coming was inevitable and they were the chosen ones and believed they had to kill themselves to get to Heaven)
-Believed that a space ship was coming for them to pick up their souls
-Looked for spaceship behind Hale-Bopp comet

When it wasn’t there people start questioning their beliefs, but this is uncomfortable so they change their beliefs and continue with original plan
-Blamed telescope when they didn’t see it
-Continued with plan anyway
-Mass suicide – so their souls would be free

When there was no spaceship, why didn’t they question their beliefs?

Have you ever done something like this? Where do our attitudes really come from?

Question 2

what is cognitive dissonance

Answer 2

-discomfort that people feel when two cognitions (beliefs, attitudes) conflict, or when they behave in ways that are inconsistent with their conception of themselves
-Dissonance is a powerful, upsetting experience; so we do something to get rid of the unpleasant feeling

ex. Heaven’s gate cult:
-There appears to be no spaceship behind the comet (I’m wrong about my beliefs)
-I’ve invested my life in this cult (I can’t change that)

Question 3

what are the three ways to reduce dissonance

Answer 3

-Change one of the dissonant cognitions
-Add new cognitions
-Change behavior (but can’t change past behaviors)

Question 4

explain dissonance for smokers and other drug users

Answer 4

-People hooked on smoking or other drugs and feel like they cannot quit; they know that the drug overtime will kill them and know they cannot quit
-People change their views that the drug will eventually kill them on that timeline

Question 5

explain every decision and dissonance

Answer 5

Every time we make a decision, we experience dissonance.
-Chosen alternative has some negative aspects
-Rejected alternative has some positive aspects

Question 6

what do the pros and cons of decisions lead to and how can it be reduced

Answer 6

Postdecision Dissonance
-Dissonance aroused after making a decision

typically reduced by enhancing the attractiveness of the chosen alternative and devaluating the rejected alternatives

How do we do that?
-Downplay: Negative aspects of chosen alternative and Positive aspects of rejected alternative

Question 7

explain the Knox and Inkster horserace study

Answer 7

-Confidence increases after placing bets
-Went to a horse racing arena, lots of people were making bets

Took one day and hung around the betting booth and approached people before they made the bet, who are you making the bet on? And how confident are you that you are going to win the bet?
-Then waited until people made the bet, and asked after they walked away from the betting window and asked the same questions

Results: the people they talked to after they made the bet were much more confident than the people they talked to before they made the bet

Question 8

what happens to dissonance when decisions are permanent (irrevocable) and the photo study

Answer 8

Irrevocability increases dissonance (Gilbert & Ebert, 2002)

-Participants had a choice between two photos (people were in a class where you had to learn about photography, had to develop pictures in a dark room and it cost more money at the time this study was made); took people in the class and told them they could keep one of the photos they could keep
-Could change mind later (or not); half were told this and half were told they could not change the mind
-Later, those who could not choose were happier; contacted the people who made the choice and asked them how happy with the decision they were that they made; increased level of happiness to reduce dissonance

Question 9

where does dissonance reduction come from (two places)

Answer 9

-Dissonance reduction can come from two places:

1) External Justification
-An explanation for dissonant behavior that resides outside the individual (e.g., to receive a large reward or avoid a severe punishment)
-Ex. Something has been added in that makes you feel better about it

2) Internal Justification
-The reduction of dissonance by changing something about oneself (e.g., add or change cognition, or change behavior)

Question 10

explain the study with college students and the boring task and the results

Answer 10

Festinger and Carlsmith (1959)
-Brought college students into his lab and told them they would be engaging in a task and the purpose is to see how you are influenced by the type of instructions you need to do on the task
-Task was mind numbingly boring, had to turn all the pegs quarter turns over and over again
-Cover story

The effect of “interest instructions” on performance on a boring task

Task
-Extremely boring

After they had everyone do the task they reminded about the purpose of the study and told them that they needed to tell the participant after them that the task was super interesting even though it was dull; half of the people were told they would be paid $1 the other half were told they would be paid $20

Results: everyone complied to the study, no one cared about lying and everyone did it
-Dependent measure was asking the people how much they liked participating in the study
-Found that the people who were paid $1 said the task was very interesting, people who were paid $20 said the task was not interesting

Question 11

why did they find the results they did in the college student study

Answer 11

-In the $20 condition, these people have good external justification for lying, did not actually change their attitude about the task
-In the $1 condition, these people did not have good external justification so they needed to find internal justification, did not get paid much to lie to the person and unsure why they did that (dissonance), so maybe it was not a lie, maybe the task was actually very interesting

Question 12

does dissonance reduction work in the real world?

Answer 12

It does!
ex. Counterattitudinal essays about doubling funds for African American students’ scholarships (people who did not support this had to write an essay about why they support this)
-Increased support for policy (and changed attitudes towards African Americans), decreased racism

Essays against “thin is beautiful” ideal
-Increased body satisfaction
-Decreased chronic dieting
-Happier and less anxious

Presumably because they are having people engage in a behavior that is in contrast to a belief they have, to reduce dissonance they back off of the belief they have

Question 13

explain what Ben Franklin said about the justification of kindness (Ben Franklin effect)

Answer 13

-Franklin told this story about a strategy he uses to manipulate people (who do not like him), he asks people to do him a favor and he asks them to do him a favor and he writes them a thank you note and they end up liking him

Question 14

explain the study that tested the Ben Franklin effect

Answer 14

-Had people do a psychology experiment and paid them for doing the experiment
-In one condition: experimenter asked people to do a favor for them, we paid you, but we need to pay all of our participants and we are running out of money, could you please return some to me so I can finish my research (people did this in many cases because people are pretty compliant)
-In another condition: people were asked to give money to the psychology department to continue the study not the experimenter
-In another condition: no favor was asked

People were then asked how much they liked the experimenter: people who did a favor for the experimenter said they liked them the most, people who did the favor for the department said they liked them the least

Why?
-Doing the favor is kind of hypocritical and a dumb thing to do because it is your money
-People will justify their decision by saying he is a nice guy and I was just helping him out

Question 15

explain cruel behavior and dissonance

Answer 15

Cruel behavior is dissonant with view of self as a decent human being (killing other people is not a comfortable thing)
-Resolve dissonance by changing thoughts about victim
-If you truly believe that the people you are fighting are bad people, then they deserve what you are doing to them

Question 16

explain the Davis and Jones study about writing things wrong about a person

Answer 16

-Participants observed interview of a confederate
-After watching the person interview, they asked one group to figure out everything wrong with the persona and give the write up to the person, Gave him analysis of his faults

The other group did not do this
-Later liked him less (the group that analyzed his faults)

Question 17

explain the holocaust example about justifying cruelty

Answer 17

-Many people went along with this and knew this was happening
-A lot of the propaganda at the time helped people with this, negative views about Jewish people, equating them to rats and we need to kill them like we kill rats

Question 18

explain the study about cheaters that explains how dissonance reduction can influence personal values

Answer 18

-Mills (1958) Measured 6th graders’ attitudes about cheating then had participants play the game
-Gave opportunity to cheat in a game, kids had to play in a game, very easy to cheat and easy to cheat and win the game; purpose was to create a situation where students were able to cheat
-Easy to cheat
-Cheating almost necessary to win
-Believed cheating could not be detected

Measured the attitudes on cheating after the game

Cheaters
-Became more lenient toward cheating

Noncheaters
-Became less lenient toward cheating

Question 19

what is the justification for effort

Answer 19

The tendency for individuals to increase their liking for something they have worked hard to attain.
-A method for reducing dissonance
-Cannot change the fact that you put in all that effort, but you can change how you feel about the group

Question 20

explain the Aaronson and Mills study about the sex discussion group and how it relates to justification of effort

Answer 20

Brought people into the lab and told them they have been having a discussion group about sex, we want you to become a part of this group and participate in the discussion
-Severe initiation condition: sex sometimes makes people uncomfortable and we want to make sure you are comfortable, we are going to have you say embarrassing words and read sex stories in front of a group
-Mild initiation: same thing, just read mildly embarrassing stuff
-No initiation

Then had participants listen to the group discussion they are currently having, and it was an incredibly boring discussion, overall a stupid conversation

Participants then had to rate their interest in the group

Results: people who went through the severe initiation were the most excited about it, followed by mild initiation

Question 21

explain justification effort study in real life about the Hindi festival

Answer 21

-Hindi festival where participants have to hook things to their skin and drag things from the hooks, it is painful and gross
-Some people do the severe ordeal and other people do something less severe
-Approach people after this and asked if they wanted to donate money to the religion, people who go through the severe ritual donate more

Question 22

explain the implications of the hazing study about the Hindi group

Answer 22

-Hazing rituals serve a purpose
-Good for groups
-Bad for people (when they get out of hand)

Question 23

explain why harsh punishments might not always be the best way to go about situations

Answer 23

Most people use them, but it might not always be the best way; when you give them a harsh punishment you are giving them external justification for not engaging in the behavior; attitude towards the behavior has not actually changed

Question 24

explain the study about punishments and self-persuasion (toy study)

Answer 24

Had children go into a room with a lot of toys and had them rate the attractiveness of toys, and then told them they cannot play with the most attractive toy
-One group was given a mild threat (insufficient justification)
-One group was given a severe threat (sufficient justification)
-People normally did what they were told and did not play with the toy
-Then had all children rate the attractiveness of the toys again, and then let them play with any of the toys they wanted

Results: in children who were given the mild threats the favorite toy was rated as less attractive; the ratings stayed the same in the severe threat condition (in the mild threat condition, children are like why did I not just play with the toy because the threat is not that bad?)

Results: people in severe punishment also played with the toy more after the fact

Question 25

explain large reward or severe punishment vs. small reward or mild punishment

Answer 25

large reward or severe punishment leads to external justification (I do or think this because I have to) which leads to temporary change

small rewards or mild punishments lead to internal justification (i do or think this because i have convinced myself that it’s right) which leads to lasting change

Question 26

so.. when should you use large rewards/punishments vs. small?

Answer 26

-Large reward/punishment: good if you want someone to do something (or not do something) once
-Small reward/punishment: good for lasting attitude change

Question 27

how else can you reduce dissonance (affirmation)?

Answer 27

Self-Affirmation: Bolster the self-concept (the more self esteem you have the more dissonance goes down); why? Dissonance has to do with you thinking of yourself as a stupid person, so if we can make you feel good about yourself you can feel okay
-Special case of adding of adding new cognition

Ex. I know I smoke and smoking is going to kill me, but I am a good person so I am going to do it anyways

Reducing dissonance by adding a cognition about other positive attributes
-e.g., smoker who fails to quit: not very smart of me to be smoking, but, I’m really a very good mathematician!

Question 28

what is self affirmation theory

Answer 28

-People reduce threats to their self-esteem by affirming themselves in areas unrelated to the source of the threat
-Many of the previous findings do not hold if people do this first

Question 29

how can dissonance influence our relationships

Answer 29

Self-evaluation maintenance theory: we experience dissonance when…
-Someone is close to us
-They outperform us
-The dimensions is valued (on something that is important to us)

Question 30

explain self evaluation maintenance theory study about the game

Answer 30

Study: had people engage in a game where they had to give people clues to other people and they had to answer the questions correctly; were also told that doing the game well predicts IQ or told that it is just a game and it does not really matter
-People had to choose whether or not they were going to give clues to their partner that made the answers obvious or more difficult

Results: when people were told that what they were doing was just a game and did not matter, they give easier clues to their friends
-When people were told that what they were doing mattered, they gave easier clues to strangers