Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive Dissonance

• Cognitive dissonance refers to the unpleasant arousal experienced when cognitions and behaviors conflict, or when actions clash with one's self-conception
• Cognitive dissonance reduction is most likely when actions or beliefs challenge our sense of self-worth
• The more important the cognitions or behavior, the more motivated people are to reduce dissonance, which creates inconsistency

Anti-Vax Article

• Andrew Wakefield's Anti-Vax article illustrates cognitive dissonance reduction, as owning up to mistakes causing harm is difficult, leading to doubling down and blaming something
• Wakefield’s study on vaccinations causing autism was not replicable, unethical, and skewed by financial interest

Wilding Teens

• The lead prosecutor in the "Wilding Teens Held in Rape" case demonstrated cognitive dissonance theory by maintaining the kids' guilt to justify their actions and reduce dissonance

Methods of Dissonance Reduction

• Dissonance can be reduced by changing behavior to align with cognition
• Dissonance can be reduced by altering cognitions to justify behavior
• Consonant cognition can be added to reconcile differences and rationalize
• Another method to reduce dissonance is trivialization, which involves downplaying the significance of inconsistencies

Trivializing

• Trivializing dissonance makes the things that are being considered as less impactful to reduce the magnitude of the dissonance
• This method makes it so the dissonance is minor

Post-Decision Dissonance

• Post-decision dissonance arises after making a considered decision and involves beliefs about competency, negatives about the chosen option, and positives about the rejected option
• Post-decision dissonance typically reduces by enhancing the attractiveness of the chosen alternative and devaluating the rejected alternatives

Reducing Post-Decision Dissonance

• Post-decision dissonance can be eliminated by building up the positives of the chosen and the negatives of the rejected
• College decisions often bring forth "wishy washy" feelings to determine if the right choice was made

Jack Brehm Study

• Jack Brehm's appliance ratings revealed that people rerate their chosen appliance higher and the non-chosen one lower after making a choice

Permanency of Decision

• Irrevocable decisions strongly motivate dissonance reduction and eliminate behavior changes
• Someone who has just placed a bet on a horse will rate their horses chances of winning as much better

Illusory Irrevocability

• Illusory irrevocability is a method that reduces dissonance after decision by getting the effects of permanence on dissonance reduction without the behavior truly being permanent
• Students like a photo less when having the choice to exchange the photos

Low Balling

• Commitment to behavior allows to raise the cost and have the actor not withdraw
• 53% showed up in the low ball compared to 24% who showed that the cost was raised

Justification of Effort

• The justification of effort describes the increased liking for something one has worked hard to attain, especially if it was their own accord
• People tend to believe that doing terrible/difficult things has a good reason
• Example: Marathon Training, getting a PHD and frat hazing

IKEA Effect

• Assembling a box causes more satisfaction than with pre-assembled boxes

External Justification

• Behaviors result from external factors, adding a consonant cognition
• This includes explaining a counterattitudinal behavior as due to something about the situation or environment

Internal Justification

• A change in behavior or attitude to reduce dissonance

Counterattitudinal Behavior

• Acting in a way that runs counter to one’s personal beliefs and saying is believing

Festinger & Carlsmith

• Participants completed tedious activities for an hour followed by revealed conditions
• The people were then asked to take the place of the confederate
• The results of being offered 1 dollar caused it to be rated positively
• The might of having enough to justify does not justify what you have done and is thus insufficient to justify
• Offered 20 dollars yielded a negative rating, in which money overwhelmed the added consonant cognition factor
• Having no money resulted in a negative rating

Counterattitudinal Behavior

• Counterattitudinal behavior is used to deal with body image and eating issues

Insufficient Punishment Effect

• The insufficient punishment effect consists of the valuation of a desired object or activity decreases if there is no good external justification for resisting the desired object/activity
• Weak punishment can be used to disincentivize people

Hypocrisy Induction

• Hypocrisy Induction involves reminding individuals to be aware of their contradictions to lead to more responsible behavior

AIDS/STD Study

• Participants were asked to compose a speech describing the dangers of AIDS/STDs and the advocacy for condom use

Ben Franklin Effect

• The Ben Franklin Effect happens when acting in a certain way that helps someone in a way that is contrary to your belief and not liking the person who you are helping
• Franklin used this in order to induce his opponent to do him a favor, to have him be more likely to do him another favor

Jecker & Landy Study

• Someone who wins an intellectual contest tells people that they are handing out their own dollar, and a personal request to return the money found more favorable

Dehumanizing Language

• This is a way to reduce dissonance

David & Jones Study

• Self justification can follow acts of cruelty and is an example of counterattitudinal behavior through saying becoming believing
• Participants gave the confederate feedback that was dissonant with their views of themselves as decent humans who did not willingly harm innocent victims

Berscheid, Boye & Walster

• By dehumanizing the victim, there is a virtually guaranteed continuation or even an escalation of cruelty, which creates an endless chain of violence followed by self-justification

Contradicting Moral Beliefs

• Contradicting Moral Beliefs is an example of counterattitudinal behavior when cheating

Societal Problems

• Problems occur when societies running on punishment teaches how to not get caught, rather than how to be honest and obey behavior

Cognitive Dissonance

• Cognitive dissonance is used to prevent bullying, and a severe threat that justifies not bullying does not have the effect of a mild threat
• Therefore a child must find another way to justify no bullying, which is perhaps internally justifying by telling himself that he does not want to bully

Aronson & Carlsmith

• Aronson and Carlsmith came up with the desirable toy test and found that there had to be a mild threat that rates a toy as less desirable than before
• Overall, smaller rewards or punishments will lead to a momentum compliance with a greater eventual change

Cultural Dissonance

• Dissonance differs across the different cultures, which is less prevalent in collectivist societies to have less behaviour aimed at maintaining group harmonies and more likely to see people justifying theirs or other’s misbehaviour
• Japanese participants justified choices when they felt others were observing them making a decision, and Americans justify by making a decision

Self-Affirmation Theory

• Self affirmation theory is the idea that people can reduce threats with self esteem and by affirming themselves in areas unrelated to the source of the threat

Claude Steele Study

• White-coat science majors resisted distortion and perception in album choice
• “I may have a dumb choice in albums, but I can live with that because I am a promising scientist!”

Values Affirmation Writing

• This exercise can help black students with being more likely to go to college

Dissonance in Interpersonal Relationships

• Dissonance arises through interpersonal relationships because people compare accomplishments with each other

Tesser’s Self Evaluation

• Tesser focuses on when feeling uneasy that your friend excels more than you in something you do not do

Dissonance Reduction

• Dissonance that comes from interpersonal comparisons can be reduced by becoming less close to the person, perform them, or decide on importance

3 Conditions

• People experience dissonance in relationships when they feel close to another person, are outperforming each other, and when the area is central to self esteem

Self-Justification

• Self-justification is unconscious, and when known, it lets one monitor and watch their behavior

Narcissism

• This is the combination of self-love and lack of empathy, which makes recognizing their dissonance hard since they are self-centered

Terror Management theory

• This states that self-esteem helps keep the bad thoughts out

Conformity

• Behavior change as implicit social influence, real or imagined

American Conformity

• In America, Americans are suggested to believe that you should be independent
• Apple's Ad campaign: think different

Why Conform?

• Because people adjust their behavior towards others and seek acceptance

Informational Social Influence

• ISI lets people rely on other’s knowledge for cues, and behavior based on the belief that ambiguity has a correct interpretation

Sherif Influence

• Because that bright spot is apparent, the movement is due to a lack of
• In a light assessment over days, a group converges on a common estimate and shows ISI can lead to private acceptance

Private Acceptance

• When people conform to the behavior of others because they genuinely believe that these other people are correct

Public Compliance

• When conforming without genuinely believing in what the group does

Californa Electrical Conservation

• The study found that the electrical message caused the quest to conserve more energy, which is more effective
• The hotel stated that guests should reuse their towers

Increases

• Accurate assessment leads to conformity

Baron’s Study

• Confederate groups gave the wrong answer
• High compliance: conformed 51%
• Low compliance: conformed 35%

When Conform?

• Conform when Military atrocities occur, when experts tell you what to do
• Ex. military atrocities

Backfire?

• Sometimes conformity backfires, like with the War of Worlds panic show with aliens

Normative Social Influence

• Conform to be liked and/or accepted

Social Norm

• These are implicit and may sometimes be explicit

Social Norms

• People that do not conform end up being pushed away, and are eventually deviant
• Conformity is very important and the ones that are published and ridiculed are rejected
• Normative happens due to public conformity within the group, but not always there is private acceptance

Ash’s line

• Try to show limits to how much people conform, and people will decide for themselves
• People at a time made a wrong line judgement, although it was blatant

Brains Function

• When alone, visual and perception are activated
• In group thinking, the amygdala becomes activated

Experiment

• Some people conform to be accurate and to avoid disapproval from others

Negative Stereo

• The thought of being known as that one can be spineless and weak

Normative?

• California EC shows people like to believe the message is not having an effect on them

Scratcher’s study

• A group study found that individuals can ignore normative influences
• Ask them to discuss Johnny Rocco as well

Violation?

• Violates have consequences and should not take hold because they exert a level of pressure that increases its size

Contributive

• There are 4 factors that contribute in a certain way

Strength

• How important it is

Variable

• This is the one that we cherish those feelings from others
• Importance occurs more when caring for people’s friendship

Dissonance?

• Policy must be dangerous due to group cohesion

Idiosyncrasy

• Conformity can give others a right to earn deviance
• You will start to be powerful due to those effects

Ally Experiments

• By increasing the allies, the power becomes a true feeling
• There are examples of this in courts

Collective

• Those groups conform in their societies and value relationships

Minority Influence

• Most of the group knows or shows some signs

Normative

• These are obtained through compliance of Normative influence

Tactics- Social Norms

• Those are useful on subtly inducing people with things that they approve and are positive on as well
• Injunctive and descriptive tactics

Norms of Injunctive

• The belief on a normative, which it will be of belief to reward
• A way of something in the situation, where people believe they should do

Definition of Norms

• This can allow people to perceive whether something will approved

Effect

• You can use norms and change behavior for it to work

Boomerang

• When making a statement about conformity one must have equal benefits and be above average

Descriptive

• These use the average to show how much others will consume