Cognitive Dissonance In Festinger's Experiments
1. Cognitive dissonance is a state where someone is being confronted by something that is against his beliefs (doing an action that he / she does not like, etc.), and then he / she tries to balance the inconsistency that he experienced by changing his view on that inconsistency (to reduce the dissonance by justifying it). People want to be consistent in their attitudes and rationalizing irrational things that they did is what cognitive dissonance makes them do. For example, in Festinger’s experiments the students that are paid 1$ think that they actually enjoyed the experiments rather than those who are paid 20$. The students who are paid more think that the experiments are boring but they lied and said that it is fun to the girl (on the
…show more content…
But if you do not have it, you need a self-justification and that is what makes cognitive dissonance a powerful tools to changes someone’s belief, because if it is a personal choice, the changes are deeper and more durable.
2. Explanation and examples :
a. Justification of Effort :
If we put in more effort (money, work, etc.) at something we are going to cherish that thing more. This is related to cognitive dissonance where we want to justify something is better because we put more effort to it, even when the item is not necessarily good or better than the others (Even more so if we actually feel that it does not come up to par with the money / effort that we put to it, because we will experience dissonance and try to rationalize it.)
For example, people often say that an expensive wine taste better than cheap convenience store wine because people are spending much more money on the expensive one and even though the taste does not really change that much, they are going to rationalize the taste because of the thought of money poured into it and change their belief that it is indeed tastier than the convenience store wine.
b. Post-decision dissonance
But if you do not have it, you need a self-justification and that is what makes cognitive dissonance a powerful tools to changes someone’s belief, because if it is a personal choice, the changes are deeper and more durable.
2. Explanation and examples :
a. Justification of Effort :
If we put in more effort (money, work, etc.) at something we are going to cherish that thing more. This is related to cognitive dissonance where we want to justify something is better because we put more effort to it, even when the item is not necessarily good or better than the others (Even more so if we actually feel that it does not come up to par with the money / effort that we put to it, because we will experience dissonance and try to rationalize it.)
For example, people often say that an expensive wine taste better than cheap convenience store wine because people are spending much more money on the expensive one and even though the taste does not really change that much, they are going to rationalize the taste because of the thought of money poured into it and change their belief that it is indeed tastier than the convenience store wine.
b. Post-decision dissonance