Lecture 06 Cognitive Dissonance Flashcards
Cognitive Dissonance
- Discomfort that is caused when two COGNITIONS conflict, or when our BEHAVIOR CONFLICTS with
our ATTITUDES - Dissonant cognitions challenge our SELF-ESTEEM
What is the goal of cognitive dissonance?
To maintain consistency among humans’ thoughts
What does cognitive dissonance lead to?
- Change behavior
- Justify behavior by changing one of the
dissonant cognitions - Justify behavior by adding new cognitions
- e.g. “Smoking is cool”, “I want to be like my friends”
Self-Affirmation
- Bolster the self-concept
- Reducing dissonance by adding a cognition about other positive attributes
- e.g. “Not very smart of me to be smoking, but, I’m really a very good lawyer”, “Donate the corrupted money to earn merit”
How can cognitive dissonance implement in campaigns?
- Create a gap between audiences’ belief or behavior, and their desired outcomes by generating dissatisfaction with social proof
- Provide one or more choices for them to weigh and justify their decision with benefits or values
- Challenge their belief by providing facts, evidence, or logic to refute a common misconception that they believes, and then propose a new perspective or insight that aligns with your message
- Resolve a conflict from a negative experience, a complaint, a mistake, or a crisis by acknowledging, compensating, and improving.
- Reinforce a behavior by using confirmation, appreciation, or recognition to validate and praise your audience’s decision, action, and sharing to others
Impact Bias
Overestimate the intensity and duration of our emotional reactions to future negative events
- Anticipate that emotions will be more intense and last longer than what actually happens
The Effect of Cognitive Dissonance on Impact Bias
The process of dissonance reduction often helps us back bounce quickly from the experiencing emotion
Downplay
Distort likes and dislikes
- Negative aspects of chosen alternative
- Positive aspects of rejected alternative
The Effect of The Permanence of the Decision on Cognitive Dissonance
More important decisions and greater permanence lead to more dissonance
Creating the Illusion of Irrevocability
- When decisions are permanent (irrevocable)
- Dissonance increases
- Motivation to reduce dissonance increases
Lowballing
Present a more preferable choice first and then replace by a less preferable choice
- Sense of commitment
- Triggers the anticipation of an exciting event
Cheating Pyramid
Attitude change in bidirectional way after cheating
- Positive toward cheating -> will do it again in the future
- Negative toward cheating -> never do it again
Justification of Effort
Increase their liking for something they have WORKED HARD to attain.
Counter-attitudinal Advocacy
Stating an opinion or attitude that runs counter to one’s private belief or attitude
External justification
Use external sources to reduce cognitive dissonance
- e.g. money
Internal justification
Use internal sources to reduce cognitive dissonance
- e.g. changing attitude, believing the lie someone told
How can someone’s hypocrisy be induced?
- Make person aware of conflict between attitudes and behavior
- Hypocrisy creates dissonance
- Reduce dissonance by changing behavior
The Effect of Counter-attitudinal Essay on Cognitive Dissonance
- Writing an essay requires the individual to CAREFULLY consider and articulate arguments in favor of a position they do not actually hold
- The more EFFORT they put into constructing a convincing argument, the greater the dissonance they experience
Dissonance Reduction
+ Induced compliance
- Justification of behavior
- Trivialization
- Acquiring new information to support argument
Selective Exposure
Choose to receive message that align with their beliefs
Self-persuasion
A form of internal justification
How does different degrees of punish severity affect self-persuaion?
- Mild punishment -> Creates greater need for internal
justification -> DEVALUING of the behavior or object - Severe punishment: No attitude change
Explain why does behavior induce attitude change in terms of cognitive dissonance
- The behavior is dissonant with attitude
- Change attitude because of the dissonance
- Acknowledging mistakes and taking responsibility is easier said than done
- Process of self-justification is unconscious which mean saying out loud is conscious and doesn’t induce anything change
