chapter 6: the need to justify our actions Flashcards
(23 cards)
how to people reduce cognitive dissonance
changing behavior
change dissonant cognitions/attitudes
attempting to justify behavior by ADDING new cognitions
in the context of dissonance theory, a way of reducing dissonance by reminding oneself of one or more of ones positive attributes
self affirmation
lebron james not liking sprite but still acting like he does on commercial and not feeling guilty is an example of…
external justification
Explanation for counterattitudinal
behavior that lies outside the
individual
external justification
Lack of incentive for performing a
counterattitudinal behavior causes us to
amend our original attitude
Insufficient Justification
Changing one’s attitudes & beliefs in order to reduce dissonance
internal justification
forced compliance paradigm
manipulates cognitive dissonance and gets people to do something they don;t want to do
(offers very little incentive)
the tendency to overestimate the intensity and duration of ones emotional reactions to future negative events
impact bias
who feels the greatest dissonance after doing something cruel or embarrassing? a person with high or low self esteem
high self esteem
example of forced compliance paradigm
experiment with $1 or $20 to bribe about lying
postdecision dissonance
dissonance aroused after making a decision, typically reducing by enhancing the attractiveness of the chosen alternative
does threat of punishment lead to behavioral change
severe punishment leads to behavioral change but no attitude change
insufficient justification leads to..
changing ones attitudes and believes in order to reduce dissonance
tendency to increase out liking toward something that we have worked hard to attain
effort justification
effort justification experiment
the recorded talks of a group talking about boring things. the people who took more of an effort to get in liked the boring recording more
factors affecting cognitive dissonance
degree of choice
irrevocability (permanence)
valence of outcome
foreseeability of outcome
what kind of choice leads to strong external justification and no dissonance?
low choice
free choice paradigm study
when housewives rated products and she then had to choose between two mid rate products. she was asked to rerate them again after this and scored differently
behaviors and choices that can’t be reversed lead to..
higher amounts of dissonance. (more dissonance=more internal justification=more satisfaction)
valence of outcomes
behavior that has negative consequences leads to greater dissonance
degradation of victims
belittling victims so you feel okay with hurting them
foreseeability of outcomes
If we could have predicted negative
consequences, greater dissonance
occurs
a process where publicly communicating a belief which runs counter to a belief that the individual holds, can result in the individual a changing his or her original belief, in order for it to be in accordance with his or her statement
Counter-attitudinal advocacy
