PSYC 6 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: When Prophecy Fails, Cognitive Dissonance, Leon Festinger
Document Summary
In november 1954, marian keech received a message from the aliens that the world would end on december. 21st, 1954, at 7am (5 am pacific time) Whoever was with her at midnight would be saved. Leon festinger pretended to join the crazy people. I left my wife, kids, career, car, house, everything . God spared us because of our belief, so we"re heroes! (refuse to believe that they did it all for nothing: even if we"re wrong, we try to convince ourselves that it was the right thing) The theory that inconsistencies among a person"s thoughts, sentiments, and actions cause an aversive emotional state (dissonance) that leads to efforts to restore consistency. We experience a feeling of cognitive discomfort (dissonance) when we: (1) hold 2 inconsistent or incompatible thoughts about the world (2) perform an action that is discrepant from our self-concept/attitudes. Your brain doesn"t want to believe logically inconsistent things and so it will work unconsciously to restore consonance.
