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Cognitive Dissonance - Coggle Diagram
Cognitive Dissonance
Postdecision dissonance
The more important the decision,
the greater the dissonance
The permanence of the decision:
The more difficult it is to revoke the decision,
the stronger the need to reduce dissonance.
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Creating the illusion of irrevocability
(because irrevocability always increases
dissonance and the motivation to reduce it)
Lowballing
The feeling of commitment triggered the anticipation of an exciting event; to have it thwarted would be a big letdown
Although the final price is substantially higher, it is probably only slightly higher than the price elsewhere. Under these circumstances, the customer who has already filled out the forms, written out the check, etc. just goes ahead and buys it.
Although the decision is reversible,
there is a commitment of sorts
The decision to behave immorally:
How people reduce dissonance following a difficult moral decision has implications for whether they behave more or less ethically in the future
If you decide to e.g. cheat, you would try to justify the action;
an efficient path to reduce dissonance would involve changing your attitude about cheating (adopt a more lenient attitude)
If after a difficult struggle, you decide not to cheat,
you may convince yourself that cheating is really bad
to justify giving up a good grade
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Dissonance in the brain
Experiments with monkeys and chimps
support the notion that cognitive dissonance
has some built in, adaptive functions
"Win-stay" strategy was evolutionarily adaptive,
at least in the selection of food
The areas of the brain activated during dissonance include the striatum and other highly specific areas within the prefrontal cortex (the site prominently involved in planning and decision making)
Westen (2006): The reasoning areas of the brain virtually shut down when a person is confronted with dissonant information and the emotion circuits of the brain light up when consonance is restored
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Impact bias
People fail to realize that dissonance reduction
will save them from future anguish
(it is largely unconscious)
Dissonance theory predicts that people remember
the plausible arguments agreeing with their own
positions and the implausible arguments agreeing with the opposing position