PSY 380

February 17, 2000

Today's Topic: Cognitive Dissonance

From previous lecture:

Physiological measures

facial EMG (Cacioppo & Petty, 1981)

zygomatic activity

corrugator activity

Attitude change as a result of our need to justify ourselves

What happens when our actions are inconsistent with our attitudes?

Attitude: I like a healthy lifestyle.

Action: I just ate four pieces of cheesecake.

Attitude: I'm a good and honest person.

Action: I just told a lie.

Cognitive Dissonance

Negative arousal caused by actions that are inconsistent with our attitudes.

How do we deal with cognitive dissonance?

"I think it is important to be serious about school, but I went to a party instead of studying."

Major areas of research on cognitive dissonance

Justification of effort

Internal and external justification

Post-decision dissonance

Justification of Effort

increasing our liking for something we have worked hard for or that was difficult to attain

what happens if you get there but it's not what you thought it would be?

Aronson & Mills (1959)

Recruited students to join a discussion group on the "psychology of sex"

Three conditions

Listen in on an actual group discussion

Rate the group and its members

Results of Aronson & Mills (1959)

Implications

When we freely choose to undergo unpleasant or effortful procedures to attain something, that increases our liking of it

Food for thought:

Internal and External Justification

internal justification:

external justification:

Festinger & Carlsmith (1959)

Procedure

Three conditions

Dependent measure

Festinger & Carlsmith results

When the subjects were paid $20, this provided external justification for their attitude-discrepant action

When subjects were paid only $1, they looked to internal justification

Post-Decision Dissonance

Decide between two equally attractive options

Choose one option

How do you feel now about the option you chose? The option you rejected?

Brehm (1956)

Subjects rate a variety of household appliances

Subjects allowed to choose between two similarly rated items to take home

Subjects re-evaluate all appliances

Evaluations of chosen item increased, and evaluation of non-chosen item decreased

Recap

So we've seen that...

Alternative Explanations?