Cognitive Dissonance Introduction to Psychology

Thus, if they put forth extensive effort for an action with little payoff, they may experience cognitive dissonance. One example of cognitive dissonance would be believing that bumper cars are immature and then riding in the bumper car with one’s younger sibling.

By providing the audience with persuasive and extensive information that the public relations professional researched in-depth, then the change in behavior should be easy for whatever target audience they are selling to. The Free Killer Tan campaign done by the Mollie Biggane Fund used cognitive dissonance to get its audience to stop using tanning beds. Mollie was a college sophomore that died from skin cancer at the age of 20, and this organization was created in memory of her.

3.1 Situational determinants of how people defend BJW

The clashing cognitions may include ideas, beliefs, or the knowledge that one has behaved in a certain way. Dissonance can be eliminated by reducing the importance of the conflicting beliefs, acquiring new beliefs that change the balance, or removing the conflicting attitude or behavior. Consider someone who buys an expensive car but discovers that it is not comfortable on long drives.

It provides an introduction to the theory and covers the topics of cognitive dissonance following decisions, the effects of forced compliance, the impacts of voluntary and involuntary cognitive dissonance theory exposure to information, and the role of social support. They further presupposed that participants would be driven to reduce the dissonance by justifying their behavior.

Criticism of Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Once the subjects had done the tasks, the experimenters asked one group of subjects to speak with another subject and persuade that impostor-subject that the tedious tasks were interesting and engaging. Subjects of one group were paid twenty dollars ($20); those in a second group were paid one dollar ($1) and those in the control group were not asked to speak with the imposter-subject. There is also some ambiguity (i.e., vagueness) about the term ‘dissonance’ itself.

In the fable of “The Fox and the Grapes”, by Aesop, on failing to reach the desired bunch of grapes, the fox then decides he does not truly want the fruit because it is sour. The fox’s act of rationalization reduced his anxiety over the cognitive dissonance from the desire he cannot realise. In the study Post-decision Changes in Desirability of Alternatives 225 female students rated domestic appliances and then were asked to choose one of two appliances as a gift. The results of the second round of ratings indicated that the women students increased their ratings of the domestic appliance they had selected as a gift and decreased their ratings of the appliances they rejected. In the Effect of the Severity of Threat on the Devaluation of Forbidden Behavior , a variant of the induced-compliance paradigm, by Elliot Aronson and Carlsmith, examined self-justification in children.

1.3 Establishing reality from cognitive consistency

These positive self-attributes are like resources we can tap into to reduce dissonance. While actively seeking information that reduces dissonance, many people also deliberately avoid or deny information that increases it. So John may avoid reading studies that suggest bacon is truly bad for his health and may even convince himself that such studies are biased.

But in Aronson’s view, this was not the source of the participants’ dissonance. According to his theory, dissonance arose because lying to someone for no good reason ($1 did not seem like adequate justification) goes against the very image that most people have of themselves—that they are good and honest human beings. By convincing themselves that the tasks really were fun, the participants in the $1 condition would no longer have to feel as if they had lied, and their positive self-image would be restored. Dissonance typically results when individuals are induced or forced to behave in ways that are inconsistent with their beliefs and attitudes. For example, if a class assignment requires that you debate against a position that you strongly believe in, you would likely feel uncomfortable. Similarly, if your job involves promoting and speaking glowingly about a product that you really dislike, it is fair to assume you would experience some amount of dissonance. Festinger was unsurprised by the sudden proselytizing after the prophecy’s disconfirmation; he saw the cult members as enlisting social support for their belief to lessen the pain of its disconfirmation.

Cognitive Dissonance

A person who cares about their health might be disturbed to learn that sitting for long periods during the day is linked to a shortened https://ecosoberhouse.com/ lifespan. Since they work all day in an office and spend a great deal of time sitting, it is difficult to change their behavior.

• The theory also fails to address the issue of individual differences in the arousal of, and tolerance for, cognitive dissonance.
• Upon acquiring the additional information, they might stop sunbathing.
• This underlying tension then motivates an individual to make an attitude change that would produce consistency between thoughts and behaviors.
• According to dissonance theory, self-esteem is threatened by inconsistency.