Trivialization: the forgotten mode of dissonance reduction.

Trivialization as a mode of dissonance reduction and the conditions under which it is likely to occur were explored in 4 studies. Study 1 tested and supported the hypothesis that when the preexisting attitude is made salient, participants will trivialize the dissonant cognitions rather than change their attitudes. Study 2 tested and supported the hypothesis that following a counterattitudinal behavior, participants will choose the first mode of dissonance reduction provided for them, whether it is trivialization or attitude change. Study 3 tested and supported the hypothesis that following a counterattitudinal behavior, the typical self-affirmation treatment leads to trivialization. Study 4 demonstrated that providing a trivializing frame by making an important issue salient also encourages trivialization rather than attitude change even when there was no opportunity for self-affirmation. The implications for cognitive dissonance theory and research are briefly discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence that the production of aversive consequences is not necessary to create cognitive dissonance.

The present authors hypothesized, in contrast to 1 influential revision of cognitive dissonance theory, that the production of aversive consequences is not necessary to create cognitive dissonance and that cognitive dissonance will occur even when aversive consequences are not produced. In Experiment 1, participants drank a pleasant- or unpleasant-tasting beverage and were given high or low choice to write a sentence that said they liked the beverage. Participants threw the paper away once they had written the sentence and then rated how much they liked the beverage. In support of the hypothesis, unpleasant-tasting beverage/ high-choice participants liked the beverage more than unpleasant-tasting beverage/low-choice participants. A 2nd experiment replicated this effect, using a different counterattitudinal action and different choice manipulation. By demonstrating that the manipulation of dissonance produced increased physiological arousal, a 3rd experiment suggested that self-perception theory could not alternatively explain the results of Experiments 1 and 2. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

I'm a hypocrite, but so is everyone else: Group support and the reduction of cognitive dissonance.

The impact of social support on dissonance arousal was investigated from a social identity view of dissonance theory. This perspective is seen as augmenting current conceptualizations of dissonance theory by predicting when normative information will impact on dissonance arousal and by indicating the availability of identity-related strategies of dissonance reduction. An experiment was conducted to induce feelings of hypocrisy under conditions of behavioral support or nonsupport. Group salience was either high or low, or individual identity was emphasized. As predicted, participants with no support from the salient in-group exhibited the greatest need to reduce dissonance through attitude change and reduced levels of group identification. Results were interpreted in terms of self being central to the arousal and reduction of dissonance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Simulated organizational choice: Postdecision dissonance reduction and self-perception.

Tested the subsequent effect of choice between 2 equally attractive organizations on changes in their overall attractiveness and in the attractiveness of their instrumentality for the attainment of job goals (motivators and hygienes). Exp. I tested predictions from dissonance theory with 34 adult male students. Mean attractiveness of the chosen organizations increased and that of the unchosen organizations decreased significantly from before to after choice. Motivators, as compared with hygienes, significantly increased in attractiveness for the chosen organizations. Results make the motivation-hygiene taxonomy untenable in terms of its instrumentality for postdecisional accommodation to organizational choice. Exp. II enlisted an additional 74 Ss and controls to test the self-perception model as an alternative interpretation of dissonance phenomena. Results parallel dissonance predictions for changes in attractiveness of the chosen but not the unchosen organization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissonance and humor: Evidence for the undifferentiated nature of dissonance arousal.

33 undergraduates were committed to performing a counterattitudinal behavior under conditions of high or low choice. Thereafter, the order of presentation of two potential sources of arousal was manipulated. Some Ss first watched and rated a cartoon and then completed a posttreatment attitude measure. Other Ss first completed the attitude measure and then viewed the cartoon. It was thought that the presentation of the attitude measure first would lead Ss to attribute any arousal they might be experiencing to their counterattitudinal behavior and hence to change their attitudes. Analogously, presentation of the cartoon first was predicted to foster an interpretation of any arousal as a humorous reaction to the cartoon. The attitude and humor ratings of high-choice Ss were more affected by the order manipulation than the ratings of low-choice Ss. It is suggested that the arousal created by an induced compliance manipulation may be a general and undifferentiated state that can be attributed to any plausible source. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the motivational nature of cognitive dissonance: Dissonance as psychological discomfort.

Most empirical research investigating the motivational properties of cognitive dissonance has focused on the arousal component of dissonance rather than on the psychological component explicitly delineated by L. Festinger (1957). In 2 induced-compliance experiments involving a total of 112 undergraduates, a self-report measure of affect was used to demonstrate that dissonance was experienced as psychological discomfort and that this psychological discomfort was alleviated on implementation of a dissonance-reduction strategy, attitude change. Exp 1 yielded supporting evidence for both of these propositions. Exp 2 replicated the 1st experiment and ruled out a self-perception-based alternative explanation for the dissonance-reduction findings in Exp 1. Results support Festinger's conceptualization of cognitive dissonance as a fundamentally motivational state. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Denial of responsibility: A new mode of dissonance reduction.

Denial of responsibility as a mode of dissonance reduction and the conditions under which it is likely to occur were explored in 3 experiments. Two experiments tested and supported the hypothesis that following a counterattitudinal behavior, participants prefer the mode of reduction made available to them first, regardless of whether it is attitude change, trivialization, or denial of responsibility. The 3rd experiment tested and supported the hypothesis that denial of responsibility reduces the negative affective state induced by dissonance. The mechanism of denial of responsibility in dissonance reduction is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive and behavioral distancing from the poor.

The author argues that distancing is the dominant response to poor people on the part of those who are not poor and that distancing, separation, exclusion, and devaluing operationally define discrimination. Such responses, together with stereotypes and prejudice, define classism. The article focuses on classism in the United States. Classism is examined in the context of theoretical propositions about the moral exclusion of stigmatized others and is illustrated by cognitive distancing, institutional distancing (in education, housing, health care, legal assistance, politics, and public policy), and interpersonal distancing. The adoption of the Resolution on Poverty and Socioeconomic Status by the American Psychological Association Council of Representatives in August 2000 is cited as an important step in the direction of eliminating the invisibility of low-income persons in psychological research and theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Generalization of dissonance reduction: Decreasing prejudice through induced compliance.

Three studies involving a total of 318 White college students demonstrated that induced compliance can change socially significant attitudes and that the change generalizes to broader beliefs. Ss wrote an essay endorsing a pro-Black policy that was costly to Whites. In Exps 1 and 2, attitudes and general beliefs about Blacks became more favorable in both high- and low-choice conditions, provided publicity of the essay was high. Overall, choice and publicity had additive effects on attitude change. Some high-choice Ss wrote only semipositive (semicompliant) essays and did not change their essay attitudes. Yet their beliefs about Blacks still became more favorable. In Exp 3, racial ambivalence, but not prior attitude, predicted essay compliance. Ambivalent Ss were more likely to comply than were less ambivalent Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Context-processing deficits in schizophrenia: Converging evidence from three theoretically motivated cognitive tasks.

To test the hypothesis that the ability to actively represent and maintain context information is a central function of working memory and that a disturbance in this function contributes to cognitive deficits in schizophrenia, the authors modified 3 tasks—the AX version of the Continuous Performance Test Stroop, and a lexical disambiguation task—and administered them to patients with schizophrenia as well as to depressed and healthy controls. The results suggest an accentuation of deficits in patients with schizophrenia in context-sensitive conditions and cross-task correlations of performance in these conditions. However, the results do not definitively eliminate the possibility of a generalized deficit. The significance of these findings is discussed with regard to the specificity of deficits in schizophrenia and the hypothesis concerning the neural and cognitive mechanisms that underlie these deficits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the cultural guises of cognitive dissonance: The case of Easterners and Westerners.

Cognitive dissonance and effects of self-affirmation on dissonance arousal were examined cross-culturally. In Studies 1 and 2, European Canadians justified their choices more when they made them for themselves, whereas Asian Canadians (Study 1) or Japanese (Study 2) justified their choices more when they made them for a friend. In Study 3, an interdependent self-affirmation reduced dissonance for Asian Canadians but not for European Canadians. In Study 4, when Asian Canadians made choices for a friend, an independent self-affirmation reduced dissonance for bicultural Asian Canadians but not for monocultural Asian Canadians. These studies demonstrate that both Easterners and Westerners can experience dissonance, but culture shapes the situations in which dissonance is aroused and reduced. Implications of these cultural differences for theories of cognitive dissonance and self-affirmation are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reduction of cognitive dissonance through task enhancement and effort expenditure.

This study tested the hypothesis that task performance can facilitate dissonance reduction. It was predicted that dissonance induced by compliance with a negatively valued task setter would be reduced by task enhancement and high effort expenditure. Increased effort was assumed to aid dissonance reduction by validating the initial enhanced valuation of the task. A concept-attainment task was given to 50 undergraduate students who "chose" to comply with an inconsiderate E for no experimental credit (NC), and to 50 students who received credit (C). The NC group persisted longer on an insoluble problem, completed more trials, scored fewer penalty points, and forgot less information than the C group. They also maintained a more performance-anchored level of aspiration and rated the experiment as more interesting. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Choice and chance relative deprivation as determinants of cognitive dissonance.

While the limits of conditions that create dissonance may be greater than those stipulated by Festinger (see 32: 347), just where these limits lie is not yet known. An experiment was designed to reveal whether: (a) a chance event can affect the magnitude of dissonance, and (b) the effect of such a chance event depends upon there having been a prior choice in commitment to the event. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The reduction of anxiety vulnerability through the modification of attentional bias: A real-world study using a home-based cognitive bias modification procedure.

Recent laboratory work suggests that biased attentional responding to negative information causally impacts anxiety reactivity to a contrived laboratory stressor. However, it remains unknown whether such attentional bias contributes to real-world anxiety vulnerability. In the present study, the authors addressed this issue by experimentally inducing biased attentional response to emotionally negative stimuli, using a home-based attentional training program and then examining the influence of this attentional manipulation on trait anxiety scores and on state anxiety responses to a subsequent stressful life event. The attentional bias modification procedure was effective in inducing attentional avoidance of negative information. Furthermore, this attentional manipulation served to reduce trait anxiety scores and to attenuate state anxiety responses to the subsequent naturalistic stressor. These findings support the hypotheses that biased attentional responding to emotionally negative information contributes causally to real-world anxiety vulnerability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A physiological effect of cognitive dissonance under stress and deprivation.

An experiment and a partial replication were conducted to relate the change of motivation due to dissonance reduction and commitment to physiological changes. The experimental technique was based on food deprivation studies by Brehm which showed that already deprived individuals who committed themselves to further fasting under conditions of low reward decreased their self-estimates of hunger, while the reverse was true for those given high rewards. The data suggest that a person who has convinced himself that he is not so hungry tends to respond physiologically as if he were not hungry. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive cognitive dissonanace revisited: A further look at the dissonance self-perception controversy.

A. Arrowood, L. Wood and L. Ross (see record 1971-00611-001) found O-Ss unable to reproduce the beliefs of target persons in an anticipatory effort-justification paradigm. 2 experiments test the possibility that this finding is the result of an inappropriate instruction set and an experimental situation which gave Os indirect access to internal cues of the target persons. 177 undergraduates served as Ss. Using the Arrowood et al. instructions, O-Ss in Exp. I failed to reproduce targets' beliefs. When slightly altered instructions were employed, another group of O-Ss successfully reproduced targets' beliefs. In Exp. II, Os were given altered instructions but not allowed to participate as Ss in the experimental situation. These noninvolved Os failed to reproduce the beliefs of target persons. Implications of these procedural artifacts are discussed regarding the Arrowood et al. study and to simulations in general. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Automaticity of cognitive control: Goal priming in response-inhibition paradigms.

Response inhibition is a hallmark of cognitive control. An executive system inhibits responses by activating a stop goal when a stop signal is presented. The authors asked whether the stop goal could be primed by task-irrelevant information in stop-signal and go/no-go paradigms. In Experiment 1, the task-irrelevant primes GO, ###, or STOP were presented in the go stimulus. Go performance was slower for STOP than for ### or GO. This suggests that the stop goal was primed by task-irrelevant information. In Experiment 2, STOP primed the stop goal only in conditions in which the goal was relevant to the task context. In Experiment 3, GO, ###, or STOP were presented as stop signals. Stop performance was slower for GO than for ### or STOP. These findings suggest that task goals can be primed and that response inhibition and executive control can be influenced by automatic processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A comparative study of drug-related attentional bias: Evidence from Iran.

The Addiction-Stroop test has been widely used to investigate the attentional correlates of alcohol and drug abuse; however, the majority of the studies have been conducted with European and American participants. The present study tested whether Iranian drug abusers show higher attentional bias for drug-related stimuli. Participants included drug abusers (N = 53; 100% male), with a clinical history of opium and heroin abuse, who were in a Methadone Maintenance Therapy program. Only nonabusers (N = 71; 71, 54% male) with a history of having never abused of drugs or alcohol participated in the study as controls. All participants completed a computerized Persian version of classic and addiction Stroop tests. The results of a multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) showed that drug abusers had a higher attentional bias for drug-related stimuli than nonabusers, after the effects of age and education had been controlled. The results of repeating the MANCOVA (a) limited to men only, and (b) to men and women in the nonabuser sample showed that the observed difference in the drug-related attentional bias of drug-abusers and nonabusers was not an artifact of gender imbalance. Our findings support the idea that drug-related attentional bias is culture-free. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivated augmentation and reduction of the overattribution bias.

Three experiments investigated whether the need to have (or avoid) cognitive closure affects observers' tendency to display attributional bias. Results of each experiment indicate that the overattribution bias was magnified under high need for cognitive closure and attenuated under high need to avoid closure. In Exps 1 and 3, the relevant motivational state was manipulated situationally, whereas in Exp 2 an individual-differences measure of the closure motivation was used. These divergent operationalizations yielded convergent results. Furthermore, when in Exp 3 the task consisted of attributions to the situation, high need for closure augmented, and high need to avoid closure reduced, situational rather than dispositional overattributions. The results imply general motivational boundary conditions for inferential biases across judgmental contents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vicarious dissonance: Attitude change from the inconsistency of others.

Three studies support the vicarious dissonance hypothesis that individuals change their attitudes when witnessing members of important groups engage in inconsistent behavior. Study 1, in which participants observed an actor in an induced-compliance paradigm, documented that students who identified with their college supported an issue more after hearing an ingroup member make a counterattitudinal speech in favor of that issue. In Study 2, vicarious dissonance occurred even when participants did not hear a speech, and attitude change was highest when the speaker was known to disagree with the issue. Study 3 showed that speaker choice and aversive consequences moderated vicarious dissonance, and demonstrated that vicarious discomfort--the discomfort observers imagine feeling if in an actor's place--was attenuated after participants expressed their revised attitudes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)