Cognitive Dissonance

Question 1

Attitude change

Answer 1

Attitudes not fixed
If attitudes influence behaviour, then if you can change a persons attitude maybe you can change their behaviour
Applications; health behaviours, business, offender rehabilitation, citizenship & politics

Question 2

Cognitive dissonance theory

Answer 2

Festinger (1957)
Argues that when we are aware that our cognitions (including behaviour) are inconsistent/imbalanced feel an unpleasant state of psychological tension (dissonance)

Question 3

Dissonance effects

Answer 3

Such inconsistent conditions lead us to perform psychological work to reduce dissonance
This usually involves support for the cognition that is most resistant to change
The focal cognition
Often the focal cognition is our recent behaviour, with the other cognitions needing to change being our attitudes, feelings, beliefs & other behaviours

Question 4

Dissonance reducing options

Answer 4

Change behaviour, change cognitions e.g. denial or add cognitions e.g. excuses
Subtract dissonant cognitions, lower importance
Add consonant cognition, increase importance of anything in line with behaviour e.g. that match focal cognition
Changes attitude

Question 5

Free-choice paradigm

Answer 5

Experimental set up
After you’ve made a choice you will be motivated through cognitive dissonance to big up the advantages & okay dish the disadvantages of the chosen item & big up the disadvantages & okay dish the advantages of the rejected item

Question 6

Brehm (1956)

Answer 6

Pp rated desirability of 8 products, allowed to choose 1 of 2 items to keep, rated items again, whichever chosen to keep seen as much better & vice versa
Avoiding buyer remorse; reduce aversive feelings by searching for positive characteristics, emphasising these & evaluating chosen item more positively but searching & emphasise negative characteristics of rejected item (positive spreading)

Question 7

Chen & Risen (2010)

Answer 7

Argued for fundamental flaw on free choice paradigm, presented mathematical proof showing the experimental set up always automatically produced positive spreading, concluded that you can’t trust it

Question 8

Alos-ferrer &; shi (2015)

Answer 8

Presented mathematical evidence that Chen & Risen’s proof is innacurate, show that FCP can produce false positive spreading as well as negative spreading & is not biased towards positive or negative spreading
FCP is flawed but informative

Question 9

Sharot et al (2010)

Answer 9

Designed faked pp choice & still found positive spread

Question 10

Also-ferrer et al (2012,2015)

Answer 10

Use a different design & find choice-induced preference change
Therefore argue that flaws in the FCP mean we should check out precious findings that used it by employing more sophisticated designs

Question 11

Forced compliance paradigm

Answer 11

If you experience cognitive dissonance after freely choosing a behaviour, what if you are forced into a behaviour that goes against your attitudes
One of the earliest experimental paradigms for CDT

Question 12

Festinger & Carlsmith (1959)

Answer 12

Pp performed series of dull tasks then paid either $1 or $20 to tell a waiting pp (confederate) that the tasks were rlly interesting, control group not asked to lie, then evaluated dull task
$20 group had sufficient justification for lying, low dissonance, no change in attitude to task
$1 group had insufficient justification, high dissonance, changed attitude towards task
First example if counter-attitudinal advocacy designs; other examples, advocate for reverse of people’s attitudes, usually changes them

Question 13

Therapy applications

Answer 13

CAD great opportunity for therapy
Getting people with unhealthy attitudes to advocate against those attitudes
Can lead to movement away from those attitudes & reduction in the unhealthy behaviour associated with them e.g. body dissatisfaction

Question 14

Effort justification paradigm

Answer 14

People believe a goal is worthwhile if they’ve worked hard to get there even if they never reach it
More effort= higher rating
Relieve discomfort felt by unhappiness in situation by changing belief to match behaviour

Question 15

A critical eye on CDT

Answer 15

Self-dimensions; self-consistency & self-affirmation
Self-consistency; aronson argues that it is the consistency of self image that is key to dissonance effect, what matters is whether we maintain a consistent Sense of self
Self-affirmation; for Steele it was more about maintaining self-integrity than self-consistency, so given the opportunity to affirm our positive self image we won’t feel so much dissonance

Question 16

Self-perception theory

Answer 16

A challenge to the mechanisms of CDT
People infer their character by looking at past behaviour
When external cues cannot explain behaviour, people will infer more about who they are from their behaviour
$1 reward is small, inference about behaviour attributed internally, inference about task, find it enjoyable
$20 reward is big, behaviour discounted as info source, find task dull

Question 17

Radical theory of cognitive dissonance

Answer 17

Argues against self-emphasising revisions of cognitive dissonance
Just because cognitive dissonance can include a self consistency &/or self-affirmation dimension doesn’t mean they are part of cognitive dissonance
Also stress that cognitive dissonance is not s consistency theory but a theist of behaviour rationalisation because dissonance can maintain or promote inconsistency
Take us back to basic CDT, important of commitment to dissonance effects
Don’t need agreeing more than focalises cognition

Question 18

Against self-presentation theory

Answer 18

Also argue that various experiments provide a strong challenge to self perception theory

Question 19

Conclusions

Answer 19

CDT has been of interest for 60+ yrs
Although hard to say if cognitive dissonance was defiantly operating, it’s often very useful to consider if cognitive dissonance could be operating