PSYCH253 Lecture 11: Cognitive Dissonance Theory and Attitudes - 2

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH253
• Professor: Christopher Lok

Document Summary

Brehm looked at the free choice paradigm how people understand the choices they make. On the re-rate, the item that they chose got better. All of the bad features of the item you chose are inconsistent with your choice. People rationalize their choices they like what they picked better than what they did not pick. Cognitive dissonance e(cid:448)er(cid:455)o(cid:374)e"s fa(cid:448)ourite theor(cid:455: in 1960s, 80% of all published studies in social psychology were on dissonance theory. Control (no lie) rated the task boring. Experimental ( lie) rated the task boring but not as much as the control. Experimental ( lie) rate the task fun! Only people paid changed their view of the experiment to being enjoyable. Lie acting inconsistently with o(cid:374)e"s (cid:271)eliefs : not a good reason for doing so produces dissonance to redu(cid:272)e disso(cid:374)a(cid:374)(cid:272)e, o(cid:374)e"s (cid:271)eliefs (cid:449)ill change. Lie acting inconsistently with o(cid:374)e"s (cid:271)eliefs : a good reason for doing so does not produce dissonance therefore, o(cid:374)e"s (cid:271)eliefs (cid:449)ill.