Exam 6: The Need to Justify Our Actions

Who is most likely to enjoy a boring and lackluster rock and roll concert performed by washed-up, fifty-something "has beens"?

It is not uncommon for cultures to dehumanize their enemies. What explains why, for example, a Vietnam veteran might dehumanize the Vietnamese or a Nazi might dehumanize the Jews?

Phil spent an hour and a half running cables and toying with connections in order to receive cable TV in his room. When he was finished, he got fifty channels, but all of them were kind of fuzzy. His roommate, Jason, arrived home when Phil was done, and they both sat down to watch TV. Which one will enjoy the cable TV the most?

Recall that Aronson and Carlsmith (1963) told preschoolers that they were not allowed to play with a toy that the children had already rated as more attractive than other toys. Half of the children were threatened with mild punishment if they disobeyed, and the other half with severe punishment. When the experimenter left the room, none of the children played with the forbidden toy. When the experimenter returned and asked the children to rate all the toys again, those children who received

According to dissonance theorists, the practice of threatening mild punishment works because it arouses ________ cognitive dissonance and therefore causes ________.

When a neighbor asks if he can borrow your chemistry textbook and you do him this favor, dissonance theory would predict that you will like him more due to the Ben Franklin effect, which works because you

All of the following processes except ??????????????????????________ are motivated by the need to preserve or maintain self-esteem.

According to the authors of your text, using ________ rewards or punishments leads to longer lasting attitude change than using ________ rewards or punishments.

Compare and contrast how cognitive dissonance theory and self-perception theory (Chapter 5) would explain the Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) $1/$20 experiment. Given that both theories can explain these results, in which situations is dissonance theory more likely to apply and in what conditions is self-perception theory probably operating?

When preschoolers were forbidden to play with a very attractive toy, some received mild threats of punishment, and others received severe threats of punishment should they disobey (Aronson & Carlsmith, 1963). Because they had ________ justification, children in the mild threat condition experienced ________ dissonance, and changed their rating of the forbidden toy.

A Japanese psychologist by the name of Sakai observed participants partaking in dissonance-reducing behaviors. Sakai also had a fellow group member of the participant observe the dissonance-reducing behavior. The observer then indicated how enjoyable he or she thought a boring task was. These results suggest that Japanese observers

Over the weekend, you are going to meet your new romantic partner's parents for the first time. In particular, you want your partner's father to like you. How might you use the Ben Franklin effect to get him to like you more? Be sure you include an example.

How would a dissonance theorist explain the paradoxical finding that we are apt to like our adversaries after doing them a favor and to dislike our friends after treating them badly?

According to the authors of your text, when people are tempted to behave immorally and they choose to be either moral or immoral in that situation, how do they justify their actions?

Misaki feels terrible after just failing an exam in Spanish class. Now, in chemistry class, her lab partner just left the answers to the homework open on her desk while she steps into the hall to take a phone call. How is Misaki likely to behave?

If you wanted to make use of the concept of insufficient punishment, how would you discipline your child when she's misbehaving? Give the child a stern look and tell her

In the aftermath of a dissonant behavior, people often change something about themselves as a means of reducing cognitive dissonance. This is known as

Recall that Brehm (1956) asked women to rate the desirability of a number of appliances, and then allowed them to choose one of those appliances as a gift. Twenty minutes later, all women re-rated the same appliances, including the one they chose. According to his findings, which of the following (fictitious) participants would rate the toaster lower than she had originally?

A recent MRI study revealed that when participants successfully reduced and resolved their cognitive dissonance, they experienced

Jessica thinks of herself as a health-conscious person. As she is eating a steak one evening, she sees a news report that consuming red meat increases the risk of breast cancer by over 50 percent! At this moment, she is experiencing a large amount of cognitive dissonance. State the three ways people can reduce dissonance, and apply these techniques to Jessica's dissonance; that is, give an example of each of the three dissonance reduction techniques Jessica could use.