PSYC1004 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Cognitive Dissonance, Consistency Model, Attitude Change
Lecture 6
11 August 2017
09:08
Balance Theory (Heider)
People try to maintain balance among their beliefs, feelings and behaviours (ie. Attitudes)
Balance: agree with people we like and disagree with those we don’t like
Think of someone you respect/like. What if they expressed an opinion you opposed?
1. Change you attitude towards the other person
2. Change your attitude towards the issue
Triad:
1. Person (ie. You)
2. Other (other person)
3. X (the attitude object)
When we like someone who holds attitudes different to our own we are motivated to
change our own attitudes or to persuade them to change their attitudes.
When we dislike someone and they share our attitude(s) we try to change our attitude
towards them or towards the object
Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Festinger)
Cognitive consistency model but within person not between persons
Cognitive dissonance - an unpleasant internal state that results when individuals notice
inconsistency between:
oTwo or more attitudes, or
o Between attitudes and behaviour (i.e. being hypocritical)
‘In the head’ – conflict between different attitudes within the same person
Example - Induced compliance (forced compliance)
Situations in which we are forced by circumstances to say/do something that contradicts our
attitudes
Often, behaving in ways that are inconsistent with our attitudes causes us to change our
attitudes
Motivated to resolve the inconsistency - Attitude change
Case Study: Festinger and Carlsmith, 1959
oStudents spent 1 hour turning pegs in holes (really boring)
oAsked to lie to another student (i.e. say task was interesting) and paid either $1 or
$20
oLater asked how much they enjoyed the task – who enjoyed it more those paid $1 or
$20?
oPeople who only got payed $1 said they enjoyed it more, due to the fact that they
didn’t have a good reason to lie in the first place. Ie. They must have liked it because
they lied. They had to be convinced that they enjoyed it or why did they do it? Their
attitude changes to match their behaviour
o
Strong reasons to contradict our attitudes (paid $20):
oDissonance low or non-existent
oNo motivation to make match attitudes and behaviour
No good reason for counter-attitudinal behaviour (paid $1):
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
People try to maintain balance among their beliefs, feelings and behaviours (ie. attitudes) Balance: agree with people we like and disagree with those we don"t like. What if they expressed an opinion you opposed: change you attitude towards the other person, change your attitude towards the issue. Triad: person (ie. you, other (other person, x (the attitude object) When we like someone who holds attitudes different to our own we are motivated to change our own attitudes or to persuade them to change their attitudes. When we dislike someone and they share our attitude(s) we try to change our attitude towards them or towards the object. Cognitive consistency model but within person not between persons. Cognitive dissonance - an unpleasant internal state that results when individuals notice inconsistency between: o o. In the head" conflict between different attitudes within the same person. Situations in which we are forced by circumstances to say/do something that contradicts our attitudes.
