social psych ch 6: cognitive dissonance

cognitive dissonance

discomfort people feel when two cognitions (beliefs, attitudes) conflict, or when they behave in ways that threaten self esteem — doing something you know is wrong

justification of effort

tendency for individuals to increase their liking for something they have worked hard to attain, especially if they have freely chosen to exert that effort

counterattiudinal behavior

acting in a way that runs counter to one’s private beliefs

external justification

explaining a counterattitudinal behavior as something about the situation or environment (behavior justified by big reward)

internal justification

reduction in dissonance by changing something about oneself (ex. one’s attitude or behavior)

insufficient punishment

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

hypocrisy induction

dissonance by having individuals make statements that run counter to their behaviors and then reminding them of the inconsistency between what they advocated and their behavior, leads people to more responsible behavior

self affirmation theory

people can reduce threats to self esteem by affirming themselves in areas unrelated to the source of the threat

self evaluation maintenance theory

people experience dissonance when someone close to us outperforms us in an area that is central to our self esteem. reduced by distancing ourselves from person, outperforming them, or deciding it’s not that important to us

narcissim

excessive self esteem and lack of empathy for others

terror management theory

self esteem serves as buffer, protecting people from terrifying thought about their own mortality

how to reduce dissonance?

change your behavior (least likely), change your cognitions, add new cognitions

classic findings festinger and carlsmith

either $200 or $10 to tell other participant that the study is interesting when it’s actually boring, wanted to see which group would believe it’s actually interesting, people with more money didn’t believe that it was interesting but people offered less money did

to feel dissonance, one must have…

threats to self esteem, choice or illusion of choice, low external justification (insufficient justification)

postdecision dissonance

dissonance aroused after making a decision, typically reduced by enhancing the attractiveness of the chosen alternative and devaluing the rejected alternatives

counterattitudinal behavior

acting in a way that runs counter to one’s private beliefs

hypocrisy induction

dissonance by having individuals make statements that run counter to their behaviors and then reminding them of the inconsistency between what they advocated and their behavior, leads people to more responsible behavior

self affirmation theory

people can reduce threats to self esteem by affirming themselves in areas unrelated to the source of threat

self evaluation maintenance theory

people experience dissonance when someone close to us outperforms us in an area that is central to our self esteem, reduced by distancing ourselves from person, outperforming them, or deciding it’s not that important to us

narcissm

excessive self esteem and lack of empathy for others

terror management theory

self esteem serves as buffer, protecting people from terrifying though about their own mortality

choice justification

dissonance is an almost inevitable consequence of a decision

cultural world view

religion, political orientation, personal values — protects us from existential terror by offering: meaning, real immortality/afterlife, symbolic immortality

outgroup

a group you don’t belong to