cognitive dissonance
discomfort that is caused when conflicting behaviors or views clash
ways to remove dissonance (3 ways)
- Change behavior
- change thought/ cognition
- justify dissonance
post decision dissonance
Regret felt after making a decision
- the bigger the decision, the more dissonance there is
justification of effort
tendency for people to increase the amount that they like something if it was hard to obtain
counter attitudinal behavior
behaving in a way that does NOT align with your personal beliefs
- a way to avoid dissonance would be through finding an external reason to justify why you acted differently than normal
external justification
explaining a counterattitudinal behavior due to something that occured in the environment that caused you to act a certain way
internal justification
reducing dissonance through changing something about yourself
insufficient punishment
dissonance that is aroused when individuals lack sufficient external justification for having desisted a desire/object, resulting in them devaluing said thing
hipocrisy induction
arousal of dissonance by having individuals make statements that do not align with their behaviors, reminding them of inconsistency
self-affirmation theory
the idea that people can reduce threats to their self-esteem by affirming themselves in other areas unrelated to the one that is at hand and unrelated to the threat
self-evaluation maintainance
people will experience dissonance in relationships when we feel close to another person, they are outperforming us, and that the thing they are outperforming us in is central to our self-esteem
how to remove dissonance from self-evaluation maintainance theory
1) distance yourself
2) reduce threats by changing the task that is hurting our self-esteem
3) become better at the thing making you experience dissonance
narcissism
people who have an excessive amount of self-love and a lack of empathy for others
terror management theory
self-esteem serves as a buffer, which protects people from thoughts about death
we try to ignore thinking about death as much as possible by doing things to fill our lives positively
permanence of dissonance
unchangeable decisions will make us think harder when deciding
- REMOVES changing your behavior as an option to remove dissonance
illusory irrevocability
making someone believe their choice is permanent when in reality, it is not
low-balling
After committing to a behavior, the cost (not always monetary) is raised to a point that would not have been agreed to
caildini et al (1978) example of low-balling
called people asking them to sign up for a study with a time (7am) or no time given, more people signed up without a time and then did not back out once they were “locked in” to being a part of the study
festinger & carlsmith (1959) money study
example of cognitive dissonance
people were more likely to experience dissonance at the 1 dollar mark, over the 0 dollar or 20 dollar mark
insufficient punishment
punishment that does not change the desire, but makes you refrain from doing the thing that got you punished
