Cognitive Dissonance and Its Alternatives Chapter 5

1
Cognitive Dissonance and Its Alternatives
(Chapter 56)
2
Announcements

• Exam 2 is Thursday October 25th! Covers chapters
  3-6, 13.
• Study guide available during class today
• Questions? Please come see me or Elizabeth during
  office hours or make an appointment.

3
Applications of Dissonance Theory

• Teaching children
• Children and robot toy study
• Kids given mild threat changed their attitude
  more
• Justification of effort
• Sexual discussion group study
• More embarrassment led to more liking for the
  group

4
Applications of Dissonance Theory

• Derogation of victims
• Shocking a victim study
• If victim could not shock back, more attitude
  change
• Biased information searches
• Stupid and clever arguments study
• Remembered clever, consistent arguments and
  stupid, inconsistent arguments

5
Applications of Dissonance Theory

• Post-decision dissonance dissonance that occurs
  after making an important decision
• We enhance the chosen item and derogate the
  non-chosen item to justify our decision
• Music CD study

6

• Original
• 1 Springsteen
• 2 Annie Lennox
• 3 Kid Rock
• 4 Matchbox 20
• 5 Feist
• 6 Foo Fighters

• Post-decisional
• 1 Springsteen
• 2 Kid Rock
• 3 Annie Lennox
• 4 Feist
• 5 Matchbox 20
• 6 Foo Fighters

7
Exactly when does dissonance lead to attitude
change?

• When there are negative consequences
• Boring task study revisited
• If told lie to non-participant, no attitude
  change

8
Exactly when does dissonance lead to attitude
change?

• When individuals feel personal responsibility for
  consequences
• Tooth-brushing essay study
• If told purpose of essay after writing it, no
  attitude change

9
Exactly when does dissonance lead to attitude
change?

• Arousal must be attributed to the dissonance
• If you are given another reason for the arousal,
  no attitude change
• Fake Drug study and Alcohol Study

10
Summary Assumptions of dissonance theory

• People have many pre-existing attitudes
• If we feel responsible for possible negative
  outcomes, inconsistency between our attitudes and
  behaviors creates negative arousal
• To reduce dissonance (eliminate arousal) we may
  change our attitudes to match our behaviors

11
Alternatives to Dissonance Theory

• Self-Affirmation theory (Steele)
• People do NOT have a need for consistency, they
  just need to feel good about themselves.
• Inconsistency makes people feel foolish
• If restore self-esteem, no attitude change -
  maintaining self-esteem is key

12
Self-Affirmation Theory

• Lab coat studies
• Business majors and science majors wrote
  counter-attitudinal essay
• Everyone given lab coat to wear
• Science majors had no attitude change

13
Alternatives to Dissonance Theory

• Self-Perception theory (Bem)
• Often our attitudes are ambiguous or undefined
• We determine our attitudes through a process of
  self-observation. We look to our behavior to
  determine our attitudes.

14
Self-Perception Theory

• Boring task revisited
• People did not have a strong attitude toward task
• If people have no good external reason to say
  task is fun, people infer that is their true
  attitude

15
Self-Perception Theory

• Overjustification effect Rewards can make people
  less interested in enjoyable activities
• We assume our behavior is due to external reward
  and not internal attitude
• Only self-perception theory explains this!!!

16
Overjustification Effect

• Children and coloring study
• Three conditions expected reward, unexpected
  reward, no reward
• Later, kids in expected reward condition colored
  less
• Using rewards to stamp out undesirable behavior

17
Dissonance Versus Self-Perception

• Both suggest that attitudes follow from our
  behavior
• Dissonance Better at explaining attitude change
• Self-perception Better at explaining attitude
  formation