PSYC 241 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Osama Bin Laden, Cognitive Dissonance, Impact Bias
27 Sep 2013
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Ch 6: the need to justify our actions. Cognitive dissonance (festinger) is a feeling of discomfort caused by performing an action that runs counter to one"s customary conception of oneself. \ Dissonance is most powerful and most upsetting when people behave in ways that threaten their self-image. Smokers convince themselves the data linking cigarette smoking to cancer are inconclusive or believe that filters trap most of the harmful chemicals. Some add a cognition look at my grandfather, he"s 87 years old and he"s been smoking a pack a day since he was 12. An additional way to reduce dissonance is by bolstering the self-concept in a different domain: a smoker may remind herself of the things she does well. Gilbert and wilson suggest that when people think about how they will react to future negative events, they show an impact bias, whereby the overestimate the intensity and duration of their negative emotional reactions.
