Cognitive Dissonance

* What is cognitive dissonance?

Cognitive dissonance is an unpleasant state of psychological tension generated when a person has two or more cognition that are inconsistent or do not fittogether. So that in order to achieve an internal harmony those ideas combine creating a more “familiar” concept to us.

* What ways can it bring about physiological changes and how can there bemeasured?

Experiencing dissonance leads people to eel physiological ‘on edge’ – As evidenced by changes in the electrical conductivity of the skin that can be detected by a polygraph.

* Give anexample of how this can be used to change negative attitudes.

For dissonance to lead to attitude change, it is necessary for two sets of attitude to be in contradiction. Because dissonance isunpleasant, people will tend to avoid exposure to ideas that bring it about. According to the selective exposure hypothesis, people are remarkably choosey when potentially dissonant information is on thehorizon. Exception are when their attitude is either (1) very strong, and they can integrate or argue against contrary information or (2) very weak, and it seems better to discover the truth now and thenmake appropriate attitudinal and behavioural changes.

* Why do you think effort justification creates a sense of dissonance?

Effort Justification is an idea and paradigm in social psychologystemming from Festinger's theory of Cognitive Dissonance . Effort justification is people's tendency to attribute a greater value (greater than the objective value) to an outcome they had to put effortinto acquiring or achieving. It is creating a sense of dissonance because we think “why are we doing this for” “Is this really worth it?” humans justify actions that seem contrary or not worth enoughto avoid the unpleasant feeling that doing something for nothing could create on you.

* Give an example of a study where effort justification has been used to reduce cognitive dissonance.
A...