Cognitive dissonance Flashcards
Cognitive dissonance theory
Dissonance when we do something that threatens our image of ourselves as decent, kind, and honest
Study on cognitive dissonance (pro-attitudinal or counter-attitudinal essays)
Wrote essays either favoring their opinion or not, either forced or freely chosen; cognitive dissonance leads to increased arousal when behavior feels freely chosen
Study on insufficient justification effect (tedious task)
Performed a tedious/boring task; given fake debriefing where they compare task performance, no expectations vs expectations (give other person no knowledge of study vs tell them it was fun/interesting/enjoyable); offered either $1 or $20 in expectations condition; participants in $1 condition explained tasks as more enjoyable than $20 condition, insufficient justification effect
Insufficient justification effect
When we behave counter to our attitudes when external pressure to do so is weak, we reduce cognitive dissonance by changing our attitude to be more in line with our behavior
Study on effort justification effect (sex conversations)
Three conditions - severe initiation (read list of obscene words and explicit sex scenes to researcher), mild initiation (read list of non-offensive sex-related words), no initiation; listened to a dry and boring discussion; severe condition liked the group more than mild and no initiation groups
Effort justification effect
When we freely choose to put a lot into joining a group, we reduce cognitive dissonance by liking the group more
Overjustification
Strong external pressure, we infer external pressure drove behavior
Study on cognitive dissonance and behavior change (water conservation)
4 conditions - mindfulness and commitment (hypocrisy), mindfulness only, commitment only, no-treatment; mindfulness = survey on past wasteful behaviors, commitment = signing a flyer to be hung up; hypocrisy group took the shortest showers, all groups but control turned off water to shampoo/soap/condition
