Slide 1 ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 2 ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 3 Festinger, L., Riecken, H. W., & Schachter, S. (1956). When Prophecy Fails. New York: Harper & Row. ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 4 ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 5 ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 6 Bob I want to be muscular! I'll work out more! PLAN REALITY I am strong and muscular After 4 months of work out I have healthy lifestyle ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 7 ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 8 Cognitive dissonance has occurred ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 9 Cognitive = involving thinking Dissonance = disharmony, discord Cognition* = beliefs, attitudes, behavior * (in this context) Cognitive dissonance = unpleasant state that occurs whenever a person holds two cognitions that are psychologically inconsistent This unpleasant state is highly motivational. It drives us toward reducing the dissonance. ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 10 Question: Who thinks that people are rational animals? Answer: We are not rational animals. We are rationalizing animals. ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 11 The presence of a cognitive inconsistency of sufficient magnitude will evoke an aversive motivational state dissonance ­ that drives cognitive work aimed at reducing the cognitive inconsistency. (Festinger, 1957) Magnitude = number of Dis/Con psychological importance of Dis/Con The routes of dissonance reduction: Subtracting dissonant cognitions Adding consonant cognitions Decreasing the importance of dissonant cognitions Increasing the importance of consonant cognitions ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 12 Research has shown that dissonance processes can: Reduce prejudices (Leippe & Eisenstadt, 1994) Increase water conservation (Dickerson, Thibodeau, Aronson, & Miller, 1992) Increase the purchasing of condoms (Stone, Aronson, Crain, Winslow, & Fried, 1994) Reduce hunger and thirst (Brehm, 1962) Reduce pain (Zimbardo, Cohen, Weisenberg, Dworkin, & Firestone, 1969) ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 13 ... they can also lead to changes in attitudes toward a variety of objects and issues such as: Boring tasks (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959) Delicious chocolate (Harmon-Jones, Brehm, Greenberg, Simon, & Nelson, 1996) Eating grasshoppers (Zimbardo, Weisenberg, Firestone, & Levy, 1965) Sour beverages made with vinegar (Harmon-Jones et al., 1996) Increasing tuition at one's university (Elliot & Devine, 1994) Mandatory comprehensive final exams (Simon, Greenberg, & Brehm, 1995) ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 14 Attitude change in American POWs* in Chinese camps * Prisoner of war ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 15 ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 16 (Festinger, Carlsmith, 1959) "The boring task" experiment Subjects received $1 or $20 reward for lying about enjoyableness of the task $1 $20 Control 1.35 -.05 -.45 6.45 5.18 5.60 1.20 -.25 -.62 How enjoyable were tasks? (rated from -5 to +5) Were tasks scientifically important? (rated from 0 to +10) Are you willing to participate in similar experiments? (rated from -5 to +5) ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 17 Counterattitudinal advocacy ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 18 (Brehm, 1956) "You can keep one toaster" experiment 1. Women rated toasters 2. Then given chance to take one of them 3. Suddenly... ... chosen is way better unchosen toasters are way worse Postdecisional spreading of alternatives ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 19 (Aronson, Mills, 1959) "Petting vs. erection initiation" experiment Women joined the sex discussion group via easy OR hard "initiation process". Then they heard boring presentation. The "hard initiation group" members reported more positive attitudes toward the discussion group. The power of rites of passage ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 20 (Aronson, Carlsmith, 1963) "Severe vs. mild punishment for playing with a forbidden toy" experiment Children prohibited from playing with an attractive toy by a mild threat subsequently found the toy less attractive that did children prohibited by a severe threat. Practical application: "Good boy vs. Bad boy framing" ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ Slide 21 Attitude change in American POW's in Korean War Stan's Oldsmobile Justifying untruths Justifying difficult decisions Justifying effort Justifying failure to act Counterattitudinal advocacy Postdecisional spreading Cognitive dissonance = unpleasant state that occurs whenever a person holds two cognitions that are psychologically inconsistent ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________