PS270 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Cognitive Dissonance, Nicotine
Dissonance: Effort Justification
● Coming to like what we suffer for
● If we expend a lot of effort, or suffer to get something, it will be dissonant if we then don’t
like it very much
● Because we can’t take back our effort or suffering, if we achieve something through this
we often like it at the end, if we don’t, it is considered dissonant
● Helps understand attitudes bc we often change our attitudes to like what we suffer for to
alleviate some of this cognitive dissonance
● Making decisions between two things that are equal in desirability can cause cognitive
dissonance
● Eg: hazing, ppl think it will make it closer bc you went through so much to get into it
Aronson and Mills
● Sexual discussion group
● “Screening test” - control, mild initiation, or severe initiation
● Could join the ongoing discussion, but only listen for the first week
● The discussion is really boring
● Rate opinion of discussion/participants
● Female participants told they were joining an ongoing study
● They were told it was a sexual discussion group, that the group met weekly, and that
one of the participants left and they needed a replacement.
● Manipulated what participant had to do to become art of the group. Some did nothing,
others had a mild initiation, some had a more severe initiation (reading sexual passages
to a group of male researchers watching).
● Then, participants admitted into the group, the group was already meeting, so for this
week they did not participate, they just listened. They heard a really boring discussion
from a recording.
● Then asked to rate opinion of the group and how interesting it was. Ppl who went
through a severe initiation reported enjoying it more.
● Illustrates why hazing rituals continue to occur
Dissonance: Induced Compliance
● Induce people to behave in a way that is inconsistent with their attitudes
○ Counter-attitudinal behaviour
● Insufficient justification: no good external justification for the behaviour
● Festinger and Carlsmith
○ Participants engage in long, boring, repetitive task
○ Asked to help experimenter: they tell the next participant that the task is really
interesting and enjoyable (counter-attitudinal behaviour)
○ Given $1 (insufficient justification) or $20 (sufficient justification)
○ Those who were payed 20 dollars to say it was fun still actually thought it was
boring, others paid one dollar to say it was fun experience dissonance and
change their attitudes - thinking it really was fun
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Document Summary
Coming to like what we suffer for. If we expend a lot of effort, or suffer to get something, it will be dissonant if we then don"t like it very much. Because we can"t take back our effort or suffering, if we achieve something through this we often like it at the end, if we don"t, it is considered dissonant. Helps understand attitudes bc we often change our attitudes to like what we suffer for to alleviate some of this cognitive dissonance. Making decisions between two things that are equal in desirability can cause cognitive dissonance. Eg: hazing, ppl think it will make it closer bc you went through so much to get into it. Screening test - control, mild initiation, or severe initiation. Could join the ongoing discussion, but only listen for the first week. Female participants told they were joining an ongoing study.
