Upon leaving the room, the experimenter told half the children that there would be severe punishment if they played with the steam-shovel toy. The other half of the children were told there would only be a mild consequence for playing with the forbidden toy.
All of the children refrained from playing with the forbidden toy. Later, when the children were told that they could freely play with any toy they wanted, the children in the mild-punishment group were less likely to play with the steam shovel the forbidden toy , even though they knew that they would no longer receive a punishment.
The children had a choice to make—play with the toy that they really wanted and face punishment, or ignore their desire for the toy. For the children threatened with severe punishment, the choice was easy—do not play with the toy.
Their desire for the toy was great, but the risk of severe punishment was not worth it. However, for the mild punishment children, it was a more difficult decision. Their desire for the toy was great and their concern for the mild punishment was small. While they also chose not to play with the toy, they may have needed to justify, to themselves, why they did not play with the forbidden toy. The degree of punishment was insufficiently strong to resolve their cognitive dissonance; the children had to convince themselves that playing with the forbidden toy was not worth the effort.
Dissonance as a result of inconsistencies of attitudes and behavior occurs when there are discrepancies between what we believe and what we do. This discrepancy makes us uncomfortable and stressed. In the Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance , the investigators asked students to spend an hour doing tedious tasks; e. The tasks were designed to induce a strong, negative, mental attitude in the subjects.
Once the subjects had done the tasks, the experimenters asked some subjects to speak with another new subject about the tasks. Unknown to the subjects, this new subject was actually a confederate an actor and part of the research team. The subjects were directed to persuade the confederate that the tedious tasks were interesting and engaging.
The third group, the control group, was not asked to speak with the confederate. At the conclusion of the study, subjects were asked to rate the tedious tasks. The responses of the paid subjects were evidence of cognitive dissonance. The subjects in the paid groups experienced dissonance due to inconsistencies between their attitudes and behavior. However, the one-dollar group rated the tasks positively, while the twenty-dollar group rated the tasks negatively.
The twenty-dollar group had external justification for their inconsistency—money motivated them to lie to the confederate about the task being interesting when it was actually boring.
The subjects convinced themselves that the tasks were somewhat interesting to rectify the dissonance due to inconsistency between believing the tasks were boring but telling someone they were interesting. Dissonance due to inadequate justification occurs when we invest a significant amount of time, energy, money, or effort, but we receive little or nothing in return on the investment.
We may feel as if the effort was a waste or that we were cheated out of our payoff. In The Effect of Severity of Initiation on Liking for a Group , to qualify for admission to listen in on a discussion, two groups of people underwent an embarrassing initiation of varied psychological severity. After reading the list of words, participants were given headphones to listen in on an animal-sexuality discussion that they were told was occurring in the next room. In reality, they were listening to a recorded discussion about animal sexual behavior, which the researchers designed to be dull and banal.
After listing in on the discussion, subjects were asked to evaluate how interesting they found it. The subjects whose strong initiation required reading aloud obscene words evaluated the discussion as more-interesting than the subjects of the mild initiation group. The reading of obscene sexual words to be initiated to the discussion involved a greater investment by the subjects than reading non-obscene words.
Listening to a dull discussion was not worth the embarrassment of reading the obscene words, resulting in cognitive dissonance. The strong initiation subjects convinced themselves that the discussion was more interesting than it actually was to make their effort to feel worthwhile.
The mild initiation group did not invest as much to listen to the discussion, so when they found it to be boring they did not feel cheated. Dissonance due to inconsistency between commitment and information occurs when we commit to a belief, value, or ideal before having all of the information, or new information contradicts the commitment we have made to a belief. The contradiction in belief creates tension. The belief contradiction presented in When Prophecy Fails reported that faith deepened among the members of an apocalyptic religious cult, despite the failed prophecy of an alien spacecraft soon to land on Earth to rescue them from earthly corruption; they believed that only they would survive planetary destruction.
At the determined place and time, the cult assembled to await their rescue. You and your partner live in a large city. One day, your partner comes home from work with some news. You feel unhappy. Little by little, you begin to consider the pros of living in a small town.
You even read some articles on small-town living. Small towns are safer, you think. The cost of living will be lower. You might even be able to get around town without having a car.
At work, you have a fairly private cubicle. Sure, you eventually get your work done, but you know you could be doing more. But whenever you get bored, you find yourself online again. You read an article about workplace productivity that says people are more productive when they work in short bursts and take frequent breaks.
After all, you rarely take time off. And when you do work, you work hard. You should get to relax, too. You consider yourself an animal lover. But you also enjoy eating meat, though you know some animals are kept in inhumane conditions before being butchered.
In the end, you decide to start buying cage-free eggs and plan to replace one of your meat purchases each shopping trip with humanely raised meat or a meat substitute, like tofu or tempeh. This reduces your guilt and helps you bridge the gap between your love of animals and your diet.
In fact, it can prompt you to make positive changes when you realize your beliefs and actions are at odds. It can be problematic if it leads you to justify or rationalize behaviors that could be harmful.
Or maybe you get caught up in trying to rationalize the dissonance to the point of stressing yourself out. The next time you find yourself in a moment of cognitive dissonance, take a moment to ask yourself a few questions:. Everyone experiences cognitive dissonance in some form in their life. They influence mood, muscle movement, heart rate, and many other functions. Although these two…. Psychology is the study of the mind, how it works, and how it might affect behavior.
Understand the differences between a psychologist and a…. Cognitive dissonance: What to know. Medically reviewed by Timothy J. Legg, Ph. Overview Effects Examples How to resolve Summary Cognitive dissonance is a theory in social psychology.
What is cognitive dissonance? Share on Pinterest Many people experience feelings of unease and tension with cognitive dissonance. Share on Pinterest If a person smokes despite knowing the risk, they may experience cognitive dissonance.
How to resolve cognitive dissonance. Share on Pinterest A person may reconcile differences by giving up eating meat because they love animals. Latest news Adolescent depression: Could school screening help? Exposure to air pollutants may amplify risk for depression in healthy individuals.
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