Chapter 6: The Need to Justify Our Actions- The costs and Benefits of Dissonance Reduction Flashcards
Dissonance cognition
- the feeling of discomfort caused by performing an action that is discrepant from one’s self-concept
- people often deny or distort reality to reduce it
3 ways to reduce dissonance
- ) changing our behavior to bring it in line with the dissonant cognition
- ) attempt to justify our behavior through changing one of the dissonant cognitions
- ) justify behavior by adding new cognitions
* unconscious
self-affirmation
- way to reduce dissonance through adding a new cognition
- person focuses on one or more of his or her good qualities to lessen the dissonant sting but doing something undesirable
impact bias
- people overestimate intensity and duration of their negative emotional reactions
- think they will handle a situation worse than they actually will
who experiences the most dissonance
- people with highest self-esteem
- b/c they are behaving in ways contrary to their high opinion of themselves
- work harder to reduce it
post-decision dissonance
- discomfort aroused after we make a decision
- we change the way we feel about the unchosen alternatives
- unconsciously separate them from the item we chose
- makes us feel better about our choice
lowballing
- strategy where salesperson induces customer to agree to purchase product at low cost, but subsequently claims the initial price was an error and raises it
- the customer most often agrees to pay the higher price
why lowballing works
- ) customer has illusion of irreversible commitment
- ) customer has a feeling of anticipation about receiving a new product and doesn’t want to disappoint
- ) customer convinces himself that the price would not be much different elsewhere
collectivist cultures and dissonance
- focus more on needs of group, so dissonance-reducing behavior is less prevalent
- people justify misbehavior to maintain group harmony, but not their personal misbehavior
justification of effort
- tendency to increase liking for something worked hard to attain
- Ex: when a person agrees to go thru demanding experience in order to attain goal, the goal is more attractive
internal justification
- reduce dissonance by changing something about yourself
- change your attitude or behavior
- needed when there is little external justification
external dissonance
- reason or explanation for dissonant personal behavior that resides outside the individual
- Ex: behave so to get reward or avoid punishment
counterattitudinal advocacy
- we claim to have an opinion or attitude that differs from our true beliefs
- occurs most often when behaving in response to little external justification
- what we believe becomes the lie we told
- Ex: when given a small fee, students convinced themselves of prolegalization even if they didn’t have that attitude at the beginning
smaller external incentive example
-tell lie and experience greater attitude change
larger external incentive example
-tell lie willingly, but don’t believe it
insufficient punishment
- dissonance aroused when individuals lack sufficient external justification for having resisted a desired activity
- often results in devaluing of the forbidden object
- persuade self of belief to comply with rules
- Ex: kids tempted, but resisted to play with forbidden toy came to believe toy wasn’t so great after all
self-persuasion
-long lasting form of attitude change that results from attempts at self-justification
large reward or severe punishment
- external justification
- do something b/c have to
- temporary attitude change
small reward or mild punishment
- internal justification
- do something b/c think it is right
- lasting attitude change
hypocrisy induction
- arousal of dissonance by having individuals make statements that run counter to their behaviors and then reminding them of the inconsistency between what they advocated and their behavior
- people face difference of what they say and do
- purpose is to encourage more responsible behavior
- Ex: smokers create antismoking video
mental effort to maintain positive self-image
- behavior changes and cognitive distortions that occur when we are faced with evidence that we have done something that is not intelligent, sensible, or decent
- behavior changes following feelings of dissonance
dissonance reduction and changing morals
- once an unethical act is committed, the person experiencing dissonance justifies it
- increases the likelihood of it happening again
dissonance and getting someone to like you
- have them do you a favor
- makes the persona internally justify the fact that they did something nice for you
dissonance and harming a person
- reduce threat to self-image that could come from doing a bad deed
- justify what you did by denigrating your victim
- saying the person deserved it or saying the person isn’t “one of us” anyway
- Ex: soldier kills many civilians during war
when is dissonance counterproductive
-solidifies negative behaviors and values
When unscrupulous salespeople use lowballing as a means of selling cars, they take advantage of buyers’ illusions that their decision to buy a particular car was
irrevocable
Elliot Aronson and Judson Mills (1959) performed an experiment in which college women were invited to join a discussion group about sex. In order to join the group, participants had to undergo either a severe initiation, a mild initiation, or no initiation. Which of the following best describes this study’s findings? Women who underwent ______ initiation enjoyed the discussion the ______
severe
most
Your text describes several situations in which a person may decide to behave immorally, a behavior which is likely to arouse a fair amount of cognitive dissonance. How are people most likely to reduce this dissonance stemming from an immoral act such as lying or cheating
change your attitude about immoral behavior
Rudy thinks that if he ever got kicked off of the football team he would be depressed for months, and that his life would lose all meaning. In actuality, his response would probably not be this severe or prolonged. What is Rudy demonstrating
impact bias
Imagine you really enjoy lying out in the sun to get a deep, dark tan. According to research by Jones and Kohler (1959), if you heard arguments both for and against tanning, you would probably remember _____ arguments for tanning, and _____ arguments against tanning
plausible
implausible
When people act contrary to their self-perceptions as reasonable and sensible people, they experience a feeling known as _____________
cognitive dissonance
_____ refers to long-lasting attitude change that arises from attempts to reduce cognitive dissonance
self-persuasion
According to cognitive dissonance theory, soldiers may reduce their guilt about killing innocent civilians during wartime by
dehumanizing their victims
Ying just purchased a rather expensive wrist watch. She had debated for weeks about the merits of two different styles before making her final decision. It’s now likely that Ying will
emphasize positive aspects of chosen watch
A tobacco grower says, “I’m not the only one growing it. If I stop, someone else will be there.” Assuming that the man was experiencing dissonance from the fact that he was making his living from a crop that is bad for people’s health, he appears to be reducing this dissonance by
adding new cognitions
The authors of your text present a study by Egan and his colleagues in which monkeys were given a choice between different colors of M&Ms— later, their preference for different colors of M&Ms was re-assessed. The researchers found that the monkeys
reduce liking for colors they didn’t choose
Imagine that both Vera and Carol are against affirmative action. Vera is offered $50 to write an essay about the benefits of affirmative action, whereas Carol is offered only $1 to write a similar essay. After writing the essays and receiving their payments, both women are asked to report their attitudes toward affirmative action. Assuming that their attitudes were similar at the outset, which of the following results would you expect based on cognitive dissonance theory
Carol would be more favorable toward affirmative action
Assume that in experiments conducted by Elliot Aronson and his colleagues (1991, 1993), Sally was randomly assigned to write and deliver a pro-condom speech to be shown to high school students. She also listed all the times she found it awkward or impossible to use condoms in her sexual encounters. After completing these tasks, Sally most likely
felt like a hypocrite and increased use of condoms
Based on the Ben Franklin effect, you are most likely to increase your liking for Tony when
you lend Tony $10
________ refers to the dissonance aroused after we have chosen between two or more alternatives
post-decission dissonance
Carla has just written out a check for $13,999 to pay for her new car. Although the salesperson had initially accepted her check, she is now told that there was a mistake and that the final total should really be $14, 250. Carla writes another check for $251 to cover the difference so that she can drive out with her new car. Carla has just fallen prey to a questionable sales practice called
low-balling
Research in which participants’ brains were scanned with MRIs while doing a dissonance-producing task showed that when people encounter dissonance, the _________ areas of the brain decrease in activity, and when dissonance is resolved, the __________ areas of the brain “light up
reasoning
emotion
You have worked extremely hard to attain a goal, but soon realize that the goal is not as exciting as you expected. You will probably
exaggerate positive qualities of goal in order to justify effort
Recall that Leon Festinger and J. Merrill Carlsmith (1959) paid participants either $1 or $20 to tell someone else that a tedious, boring task was really interesting. Participants paid ____ modified their original attitudes because they had _____ for lying
$1
little external justification
According to the tenets of dissonance theory, when we cannot find sufficient external justification for acts such as saying something we don’t truly believe, we will most likely
seek internal justifications
Based on information from the authors of your text about cognitive dissonance and immoral behavior, which of the following people would be most likely to condone having an extramarital affair
Jessie who cheated on his wife long ago
In the aftermath of a dissonant behavior, people often change something about themselves as a means of reducing cognitive dissonance. This is known as
internal justification
The Pattersons bought their TV from a store with a 30-day return policy, and the Stevensons bought the same TV from a different store with a policy, “All Sales Are Final!”. Based on what the text reports about cognitive dissonance, which family is more likely to be satisfied with their TV
Stevensons
According to dissonance theorists, the practice of threatening mild punishment works because it arouses ______ cognitive dissonance and therefore causes ______
much
change in attitude toward forbidden act
Recall that Elliot Aronson and J. Merrill Carlsmith (1963) told preschoolers that they were not allowed to play with a toy that the children had already rated as more attractive than other toys. Half of the children were threatened with mild punishment if they disobeyed, and the other half with severe punishment. When the experimenter left the room, none of the children played with the forbidden toy. When the experimenter returned and asked the children to rate all the toys again, those children who received
mild threats reduced their dissonance by rating the forbidden toys as less attractive than before
