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Chap 6: Cognitive Dissonance - Coggle Diagram
Chap 6: Cognitive Dissonance
Self Image
Sources
Need for
Coherence
motivated to believe we are logical,
consistent, reasonable, not random
actions are not arbitrary and determined by what we believe
"what we do indicates who we are,
who we are defines what we do"
Need to feel in
charge of fate
"author of our decisions"
do not like behaviours being
guided by situations
Post-decisional
dissonance
Decision making
accepting undesirable flaws
rejected alternative has
positive aspsects
prone to experiencing dissonance
Reducing
Spreading of
Alternatives
Distort likes
and dislikes
Highlight the goods and tone down
the bads of the chosen option
Tone down the goods and highlight
the bads of rejected option
Brehm
rank different appliances based
on order of preference
has to choose one of two products
considered to be equally attractive
rank products again
after 20 minutes
rated chosen product as somewhat
better than before
Factors
Importance
evoking stronger dissonance
when making an important decision
Permanence
no dissonance if you can undo
the outcome of your decision
Eg. Ask someone degree of support for
candidate before and after casting vote
Stronger support after casting votes because vote cannot be rescinded and desire to remain logical
Effort Justification
less effort => less cognitive dissonance experienced
Extrinsic Justifications
incentive for dissonant behaviour
that comes from outside you
Intrinsic Justifications
incentive for dissonant behaviour
that originates from willful choice
"tendency to increase liking for something we worked hard to attain"
efforts cannot be undone but
cognitions are malleable
convince ourselves that we
love something more than usual
How?
changing our perspectives
construing ambiguities of
thing in a positive light
Aronson
Conditions
Free Entry
Initiation through participating
in discussions about
meditation
Initiation through participating
in discussions about
sex
Results
put in more effort => increased enjoyment regardless of club quality
"mental discomfort arising from encountering evidence that challenges
need for coherence
"
Conditions for
CD to occur
beliefs are challenged by information
we never thought about it
when we are confronted with information that was previously not paid attention to
discrepancy between
attitudes and behaviours
Eg. environmentalist bringing
plastic bags from the grocery store
reality suggests that we have acted
illogically, irrationally or immorally
Responses
humans actively seek to
reduce
cognitive dissonance
:one: Change dissonant
behaviour
and
realign it with dissonant
cognition
Cognition => umbrella term that encompasses ideas, thoughts, feelings, beliefs in your head
Eg. turning vegetarian
seek a
balance
:weight_lifter:
:two: Justify behaviour by
changing dissonant cognition
Eg. Accept that you are not as much
of an animal lover as you thought
:three: Justify behaviour by
adding new cognitions
Eg. eat animals because
they provide nutrients
Eg. I am not directly responsible
Eg. categorise animals into those
you eat and those you love
Self Affirmation
Theory
reducing dissonance by affirming their competence in dimensions unrelated to the threat to self-esteem
Counter-attitudinal
Advocacy
Leon Festinger
Characteristics
Important
implications of this theory extend to
clinical, personality, industrial psychology
Provocative
counterintutive
Parsimonius
came up with the
theory
of cognitive dissonance
Further Research
Large extrinsic reward => small attitude change
Small extrinsic reward => big attitude change
Assumptions of
the theory
Coherence
Motivated to reduce dissonance by
changing
attitudes
or
behaviours
CD occurs when attitudes and
behaviours do not align
update slide with tutorial correction
Factors
Perceived Choice
perceiving that you have no choice
but to behave in ways that contradict beliefs
will not cause cognitive dissonance
Perceived
Permanence
perceived temporal nature of the decision
will probably not cause cognitive dissonance
Perceived
Insufficient Justification
"finding internal cause to explain a behaviour when there is insufficient
extrinsic justification
"
Eg. telling ugly
friend she is pretty
Weak
intrinsic justification
because we know lying is bad
Sufficient
extrinsic justification
of
protecting friends feelings
Eg. Study of $1 vs $20
Conditions
Low incentives
Free choice
the phenomenon relies on the need
for us to be the author of our own life
Huge
extrinsic justification
if one
is
forced or threatened
action must go
against attitude
Punishment
Forbidden Toy
subject can play with
any toys except Pikachu
Conditions
Scold you
Beat the crap
out of you
Experimenter comes back and
allows all toys to be played with
Results
Children under threat of severe punishment
played a lot with Pikachu when given the chance
Children with smaller threat played less
with Pikachu because of
self-persuasion
Effect of self-persuasion
lasted for weeks
Applications
Large rewards or
punishments
encourage compliance
prevent real attitude change
Small rewards or
punishments
produce real attitude changes
more permanent
Vicarious Dissonance
discomfort observers imagine of being in another person's state of cognitive dissonance