Introduction to Social Psychology

Cognitive Dissonance

Fall 2023
Turana A. Aliyeva, MA,
MSW, PhD
we can think about an attitude as having
three components:
 beliefs,
feelings, and
behavioural tendencies.
 Attitudes vs Actions
• Richard Lapiere (Stanford University,
1934)

• Together with Chinese student and the

student’s wife they visited 251 hotels,
camps, tourist homes across the United
States of America
During the visits
When asked in advance over
the phone
 Behavior shapes attitude
• Story from the book
“Jewish Folklore”
What is Cognitive Dissonance?
• A type of music that sounds out of tune

• A way to think about psychological theories

from the 1950s

• The negative feeling you get when you do

something that's against your belief system

• When we change our behavior to match our

beliefs
What is Cognitive Dissonance?

• The negative feeling you get when you do

something that's against your belief system
 Cognitive Dissonance
• Leon Festinger
• Stanford University
• Three group conditions
Cognitive Dissonance
 Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=korGK0y
GIDo
 Attitude:
Behavior:
Tasks were Reward:
“Tasks were
actually $1 or & 20
fun”
boring
Control condition
 Dissonant Cognitions
• Cognition # 1: The tasks were extremely
boring
• Cognition # 2: For only $1.00, I just told
someone that the tasks were interesting and
enjoyable

• lied for no good reason

• lied for a large sum of money

 Key parts of Cognitive
Dissonance Theory

• The act of holding two incompatible

thoughts creates a sense of internal
discomfort, or “dissonance.”

• People try to reduce or avoid these

feelings of dissonance whenever possible.
 Why did the $1 subjects in Festinger's
study change their mind about the
task?
•To deal with their cognitive dissonance

•To create cognitive dissonance

•Because they did something even more boring

afterwards

•Because that was a lot of money back then

Why did the $1 subjects in Festinger's
study change their mind about the
task?

•To deal with their cognitive dissonance

Dickerson and colleagues’ 1992
study
• Did your shower take 4 minutes or less
this morning?
• Did you turn off the tap while
shampooing your hair?
• Did you turn off the tap while using the
soap?
• Did you catch the shower water with a
bucket and use it on your garden?
• Did you turn off the tap while brushing
your teeth?
 REFERENCES

Myers, D.G. (2011). Exploring Social Psychology. (6th ed). McGraw-Hill

Higher Education. (Module 9).
QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS,
QUESTIONS