LO5: Cognitive Dissonance

cognitive dissonance

a behavior and a cognition are in conflict or inconsistent with each other, which threatens self-esteem and our overall self-concept

justification of effort

the tendency to increase one’s liking for something that they have worked hard to achieve

counterattitudinal advocacy

stating an opinion or attitude that is against one’s private beliefs/attitudes

Benjamin Franklin effect

you like someone more when you do them a favor

insufficient punishment

if external punishment is not harsh enough to justify stopping a behavior, we feel dissonance, which leads us to resolve it by explaining why we don’t do that behavior

Forbidden toy study

mild punishment group liked the forbidden toy less after punishment than the severe punishment group

terror management theory

terror of death is reduced by making life meaningful through self-esteem or culture

mortality salience hypothesis

culture and self-esteem protects people from fear of death, so reminding people of death results in them defending their culture or self-esteen

He dies he scores study (Zestcott, 2016)

participants reminded of death improved their basketball performance compared to participants asked about emotions during basketball

attitudes

beliefs and feelings we have for a person, objective, or event

ABC model of attitudes

affective, behavioral, cognitive

affective

feelings or emotional reactions

behavioral

observable actions we do

cognitive

thoughts, facts, what you think should happen

affectively based attitude

an attitude based more on our feelings and values over our beliefs about the objective nature of an object/person

classical conditioning

involuntary response paired with a neutral stimulus, after learning its associating with an emotional stimulus

operant conditioning

consequences of behavior associated with a reward or punishment

behaviorally based attitude

an attitude based more on our observations of how we behave with an object or person

cognitively based attitude

am attitude that is based on our thoughts and beliefs about the characteristics of the object or person

explicit attitudes

attitudes we consciously express and are aware of

implicit attitudes

involuntary or uncontrollable attitudes we may not be aware of

theory of planned behavior

the best predictors of planned behavior are the attitude towards the behavior, the subjective norms surrounding the behavior, and the ease of engaging in the behavior

elaboration likelihood model

people can be persuaded and undergo an attitude change in the central or peripheral routes

central route

making a compelling argument based in logic surrounding the choice

peripheral route

convincing someone of a choice through attractiveness and surface level details

Taking an exam personally study (Petty, 1981)

peripheral route matters more when personal relevance decreases

confirmation bias

tendency to search for information that confirms preconceptions or beliefs, both consciously and unconsciously

fear-arousing communication

persuasive messages that attempt to change people’s attitudes via fear

reactance theory

if autonomy feels threatened, it makes you feel unpleasant and you want to do the forbidden action to reduce the unpleasant feeling

attitude inoculation

expose people to small doses of arguments against their position first