PSYC2013 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Cognitive Dissonance, Nespresso
27 Dec 2018
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Document Summary
Humans have a fundamental desire to be, and to appear, consistent with their actions, statements, and beliefs. Once we make a commitment to a particular choice/option, we tend to stand by it and act accordingly. Consistency is valued, inconsistency is not because other people see consistency as more desirable. Consistency is also an efficient heuristic, most of the time. We do not have to think about an action or an issue every time, we just act the same way as we did before. Study: asked people to predict what they would say if someone asked them to collect money for a charity most people said they would volunteer. A few weeks later, a representative from a charity asked for volunteers. Compared to a control group who were not asked to make a prediction of their behavior, the experimental group were 7 times more likely to volunteer to be consistent with their prediction.
