Cognitive Dissonance Theory
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How can someone continue to smoke when he or she
knows that smoking causes lung cancer?
Cognitive dissonance is aroused whenever someone
holds two cognitions that are psychologically
inconsistent
I smoke
Its going to kill me
You need to resolve the dissonance
You say maybe smoking isn’t so bad after all
or
I’m not going to smoke anymore
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Early Explorations into Dissonance
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When Prophecy Fails
Brehm (1956) - Free Choice Paradigm
Festinger & Carlsmith- Insufficient Justification
Festinger & Carlsmith Results
Festinger & Carlsmith - Rationalization
Early Explorations into Dissonance (cont.)
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When Prophecy Fails
Brehm (1956) - Free Choice Paradigm
Festinger & Carlsmith- Insufficient Justification
Became the Forced Compliance Paradigm
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Self-Perception Theory
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Bem says we don’t need all that inconsistent cognitions
stuff, we watch our own behavior and infer our attitudes
from what we see.
He replicated Festinger & Carlsmith and observers made
inferences about the subject’s behavior that was
consistent with the subject’s attitude change.
Overjustification effect
Lepper, Green, & Nisbett
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Lepper, Greene, & Nisbett, (1973) Overjustification Effect
Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation and Rewards
Arousal and Dissonance
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Zanna, & Cooper (1974) Study - Dissonance and the Pill.
Zanna & Cooper (1974)
Dissonance & the Pill
Arousal and Dissonance (cont.)
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Zanna, & Cooper (1974) Study - Dissonance and the Pill.
Fazio, Zanna, & Cooper (1977) - provides an integretion
of dissonance and self perception theories
Within lattitude of acceptance you get self-perception
Outside lattitude of acceptance you get cognitive
dissonance
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Fazio, Zanna, Cooper, (1977) - Integration of
Dissonance and Self-Perception