Cognitive Dissonance Theory Flashcards
Who is considered to be the father of social psychology?
Leon Festinger.
What are cognitions?
A thought, piece of knowledge, emotion, belief, value, attitude, etc.
What are the three types of cognition?
Irrelevant, consonant, and dissonant.
What are irrelevant cognitions?
Cognitions that have nothing to do with one another. E.g., liking rainbows has nothing to do with knowing the cost of an iPhone.
What are consonant cognitions?
When two cognitions go together, we like them. E.g., I believe in civil rights, and I joined a civil rights group.
What are dissonant cognitions?
Cognitions that contradict or do not fit with one another. E.g., I believe in civil rights, but I hang out with racists.
What is dissonance?
An aversive state that people are motivated to reduce.
What is the basic model of dissonance?
Cognitions not consistent -> experience dissonance -> motivated to reduce dissonance -> make efforts to reduce dissonance -> consistency (consonance restored).
What dictates the strength of the dissonance?
The importance of the cognition.
How do people reduce dissonance?
Add consonant cognitions, change the attitude, change the behaviour, trivialize the cognitions.
What is the induced compliance paradigm?
The knob turning experiment.
- Control disliked the experiment.
- Those given $20 (significant amount) to convince someone it was fun didn’t enjoy the task
- Those given $1 (insignificant amount) to convince someone it was fun enjoyed the task.
Explain the results of the induced compliance paradigm.
In the $20 condition, people had an external reason for why they lied about how fun it was. In the $1 condition, they didn’t have any legitimate external reasoning, so this creates dissonance - in response they changed their attitudes.
What conditions give rise to dissonance?
Perception of choice, low external justification, and commitment to the cognition.
Do we love the things we suffer for? Or suffer for the things we love?
Probably both, but dissonance theory would suggest that we love the things we struggle for.
What is effort justification?
The more time, money, and effort you put into something, the more you have to justify why you like something.
What is minimal deterrence?
If you can get someone to stop doing something with minimal threat, then the person will think they stopped by choice - not threat.
What study by Aronson and Carlsmith (1963) supports the minimal deterrence implication?
The forbidden toy experiment. Mild threats made children actually lower their preference for the toy; they stopped playing with the toy, but had no strong justification for why.
What is an example of a real world (field study) dissonance phenomenon?
The Straw (1974) study with reserve officers training corp.
