Cognitive Dissonance

Question 1

cognitive dissonance

Answer 1

feeling of discomfort caused by holding 2 conflicting cognitions
-> motivates changes in cognition or behaviour

Question 2

what can we change to reduce cognitive dissonance

Answer 2

• change actions
  –> typicaly better
• change mindset
  –> more common when changing actions is too hard

Question 3

simpsons example

Answer 3

Basically Homer becomes convinced that the world is going to end, Lisa doesn’t believe him but he convinces a bunch of people who all go up a mountain with him. The world fails to end, they all leave. Then Homer convinces himself that he predicted it wrong bc he miscounted.

Question 4

homer:
- initial cognition
- conflict cognition
- dissonance reduction strategy

Answer 4

Initial cognition: The world is going to end
Conflict cognition: The world doesn’t end
Dissonance reduction strategy: Waits until it really doesn’t happen, then believes that he just did the maths wrong

Question 5

lisa
- initial cognition
- conflict cognition
- dissonance reduction strategy

Answer 5

Initial cognition: The world is not going to end
No conflict cognition
→ she goes up to the mountain but has an important external justification that leads to her not having to reduce cognitive dissonance

Question 6

festinger et al 1956

Answer 6

• infiltrated a cult believing that aliens were coming to save them
• In dec 20, the group expected visitors from outer space to escort them to space. Removed all metallic things from their bodies
• no visitor came
• people made excuses, waited til 4am until the leader said that the invasion had been called off because of their dedication

Question 7

what can social psychology tell us about cults?

Answer 7

we need to think about the social context
–> people are surrounded by other people who believe 100% and are prepared so they get convinced
–> pretty orginary cognitive processes happening

Question 8

Festinger & Carlsmith (1959)

Answer 8

Conducted an experiment where participants had to turn knobs (boring) until the experimenter told them to stop
Then asked to convince the next person that it was great for either $1 or $20
Afterwards asked to tell the truth about what they thought about the experiment
Those in the $20 condition experienced no change in mentality since sure, they had to speak positively, but they did so bc they were getting paid a lot
→ External justification
Those in the $1 had to change their mentality since they were upwelling the task for so much despite being paid very little

Question 9

external justification

Answer 9

a way to reduce cognitive dissonance. when you have a valid, external reason to do an action that you don’t necessarily actually agreee with

Question 10

what did bob cialdini do to look at persuasion?

Answer 10

went undercover looking at people who sold things for a living

Question 11

who came up with the elaboration likelihood model? what does it propose?

Answer 11

Petty and Cacioppo 1986
–> proposed that there’s 2 different paths of persuasion

Question 12

2 paths for persuasion

Answer 12

1. central (slow thinking)
2. peripheral (quick thinking)

Question 13

central

Answer 13

• systematic processing of the messaging
• ads that give you a lot of words and numbers to try to convince you through features of their product that you should buy it
• depends on the quality of topic-relevant information in the message

Question 14

peripheral

Answer 14

• superficial heuristics
• ie, endorsement by celebrities
• depends on superficial features of the message or the source
• most effective on people who aren’t paying much attention or dont care much

Question 15

what does the type of route u use depend on?

Answer 15

ability and motivation for effortful cognition
–> more ability / motivation = central system
–> less ability / motivation = peripheral system

Question 16

what does your ability and motivation for effortful cogntiion depend on? (2)

Answer 16

disposition = does my personality motivate me to think hard
context = am i able and motivated to think hard, given the space around me

Question 17

what is one type of ad that is more likely to be processed through the central route?

Answer 17

ads that are personally relevant

Question 18

petty, cacioppo and goldman 1981

Answer 18

• sample of uni students
• Told that their uni was thinking about adding a new graduation requirement where they would have to take a very hard cumulative test

Question 19

petty, cacioppo and goldman 19813 manipulations

Answer 19

• strong v weak arguments
• non-expert v expert sources
• low v high personal relevance
  –> in some conditions told that the exam wouldn’t affect them

Question 20

acc to petty, cacioppo and goldman 1981, what was the most effective type of argument?

Answer 20

strong arguments with high personal relevance

Question 21

did expertise matter when the topic was high in personal relevance?

Answer 21

not really, decreased in importance

Question 22

what matttered more when there was low personal relevance?

Answer 22

the expert

Question 23

what can we conclude about highly personally relevant arguments?

Answer 23

• quality of argument matters
• expertise of person doesn’t
  ==> indicative of slow thinking

Question 24

what can we conclude about low personally relevant arguments?

Answer 24

• quality of argument doesn’t matter
• expertise of person was very important
  ==> indicative of quick thinking, heuristics

Question 25

what are 3 other factors that also affect the route to persuasion?

Answer 25

1. what the thing is that the other person is selling 2. time pressure 3. emotional state of the person who is target of the ad

Question 26

What the thing is that people are selling

Answer 26

→ is it a matter of fact, or of preference --> if there is an objective best choice, people think more slowly

Question 27

how does a person who is in a high arousal state make decisions?

Answer 27

less likely to dedicate cognitive strength to thinking --> happier people = less likely to think about decisions