Cognitive Dissonance, Social Influence, and Attitude Change in Psychology

Cognitive dissonance reduction methods

Three basic ways we try to reduce cognitive dissonance: By changing our behavior to bring it in line with the dissonant cognition, by attempting to justify our behavior through changing one of the dissonant cognitions, and by attempting to justify our behavior by adding new cognitions.

External justification

A reason/explanation for dissonant personal behavior that resides outside the individual.

Internal justification

The reduction of dissonance by changing something about oneself.

Insufficient punishment

The dissonance aroused when individuals lack sufficient external justification for having resisted a desired activity or object, usually resulting in individuals' devaluing the forbidden activity/object.

Lowballing

Salesperson induces a customer to agree to purchase a product at a very low cost and subsequently claims it was an error, and then raises the price.

Reasons why lowballing works

A commitment of sorts exists; the feeling of commitment triggered excitement of a new car; the final price is probably only slightly higher than the price at another dealership.

Postdecision dissonance

Aroused after making a decision, typically reduced by enhancing the attractiveness of the chosen alternative and devaluating the rejected alternatives.

Justification of effort

The tendency for individuals to increase their liking for something they have worked hard to attain.

Permanence

The more important the decision, the greater the dissonance.

Dissonance and Self-Concept

The intensity of dissonance is heightened when behaviors contradict self-perceptions.

Self-Esteem

The evaluation of one's self-worth; maintaining self-esteem is a primary driver for reducing dissonance.

Reactance theory

Suggests that when individuals perceive their freedom of choice is being restricted, they experience psychological reactance, a motivational state aimed at reclaiming that freedom.

Eliot Aronson & Judson Mills (1959) study

Examined the role that commitment and self-justification would play in joining a group, leading to cognitive dissonance.

Mills (1958) study

Elementary school children competed for attractive prizes, leading those who cheated to become more lenient in their attitudes about cheating.

Aronson and Carlsmith (1963) findings

Children who received a harsh threat rated the forbidden toy more positively than those who received a mild threat.

Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) conclusion

Those paid $1 rationalized their judgments and convinced themselves that the task was enjoyable due to lack of justification.

Attitudes antecedents

Three potential antecedents that form our evaluation of the 'attitude object': affective, cognitive, and behavioral components.

Classical conditioning

The phenomenon whereby a stimulus that elicits an emotional response is repeatedly paired with a neutral stimulus until the neutral stimulus takes on the emotional properties of the first stimulus.

Operant conditioning

The phenomenon whereby behaviors that people freely choose to perform increase or decrease in frequency, depending on whether they are followed by positive reinforcement or punishment.

Elaboration likelihood model

An explanation of the two ways in which persuasive communications can cause attitude change: centrally and peripherally.

Central route

Processed by careful evaluation of argument, leading to long-lasting attitude change.

Peripheral route

Uses rules of thumb judgment heuristics like expertise of speaker, attractiveness of speaker, length of communication, etc.

Short-term attitude change

Changed attitude susceptible to future arguments

Fear-arousing communications

Persuasive messages that attempt to change people's attitudes by arousing their fears

Attitude inoculation

Making people immune to attempts to change their attitudes by initially exposing them to small doses of the arguments against their position

Yale attitude change approach

The study of the conditions under which people are most likely to change their attitudes in response to persuasive messages, focusing on 'who said what to whom'

Dissonance and Persuasive Communication

People are generally more likely to remember strong arguments they agree with, and weak arguments they disagree with (confirmation bias)

Informational social influence

The need to know what's 'right' and sometimes we conform because we just don't know what to do

Private acceptance

Conforming to other people's behavior out of a genuine belief that what they are doing or saying is right

Public compliance

Conforming to other people's behavior publicly without necessarily believing in what we are doing or saying

Sherif (1936) study

Participants estimated how much a light 15ft away moved, conforming to others' estimates even when alone later

The importance of being accurate

The degree to which eyewitnesses conform to others when picking suspects out of police lineups depends on the importance of the task

Contagion

The rapid spread of emotions or behaviors through a crowd

Normative social influence

The influence of other people that leads us to conform in order to be liked and accepted by them

Asch Line Judgment Studies

76% of participants conformed on at least one trial, but most only conformed 1-3 times out of 12 opportunities

Social impact theory

Conforming to social influence depends on strength of group's importance, immediacy, and the number of people in the group

Injunctive norms

People's perceptions of what behaviors are approved or disapproved of by others

Descriptive norms

People's perceptions of how people actually behave in given situations

Boomerang effect

Without the injunctive norm, persons using less than their neighbors actually increase energy use to match descriptive norm

Milgram (1962) shock experiment

62.5% of 'teachers' went all the way to 450 volts, conforming to the 'obey authority' norm

Social loafing

The phenomenon where individuals exert less effort in a group task than when working alone

Social facilitation

An improvement in the performance of a task in the presence of others compared to performance when alone

Deindividuation

The loosening of normal constraints on behavior when people can't be identified, leading to an increase in impulsive acts

Changing roles

Changing roles cause conflict and can affect our personalities

Women's assertiveness ratings

Women's ratings of assertiveness have mirrored societal trends over time