Exam 6: The Need to Justify Our Actions

Recall that in experiments presented in your text (Leippe & Eisenstadt, 1994; 1998), when white participants experienced dissonance after writing essays in favor of doubling scholarship funds for minority students, how did many of them relieve the dissonance?

The Ben Franklin effect is named for an incident in which Ben Franklin

As mentioned in the text, a Yale researcher (Cohen, 1962) conducted research at a time when the local police were very unpopular with the students. He paid some students relatively little and other students relatively more to write an essay that contradicted their true beliefs about the local police, with whom the student body had experienced unpleasant run-ins. Results of this experiment were noteworthy because they demonstrated that

Mills (1958) had elementary school children compete for attractive prizes. The children could cheat to win the prizes, but they didn't know that the experimenter would be assured of detecting the cheaters. Some children cheated, and others did not. The next day,

According to research presented in the text, students shot a roll of film and printed two photographs. Some were told that they could exchange the one they chose to keep within five days, but others were told that their choice was final. What was the dependent variable of this experiment?

The term ________ refers to a practice whereby a salesperson initially accepts a customer's offer, but then claims an error and quotes the customer a higher price.

Ying just purchased a rather expensive wristwatch. She had debated for weeks about the merits of two different styles before making her final decision. It's now likely that Ying will

"Live fast and die young, that's what I always say," Rosie pronounces, as she stuffs down three more Ding-Dong snack cakes and opens another pint of high-fat ice cream. Rosie knows that her diet is unhealthy and harmful, of course. To reduce her dissonance, Rosie is

When someone dehumanizes a victim and successfully reduces dissonance in this way, this is likely to lead to

Social psychologists had African American students do carefully constructed self-affirming writing assignments regarding their good qualities outside of school. If this approach was to work for you with a group of students who were in danger of being academically dismissed, how would it affect them?

According to the principle of insufficient punishment, which of the following parental techniques should be most effective in changing a child's behavior permanently (i.e., even behavior that occurs in the absence of the parent)?

Talia loves animals but still eats meat. When she experiences dissonance about the contradiction, she tells herself that she also volunteers her time at an animal shelter. This manner of reducing dissonance involves

The most typical ways of reducing dissonance include all of the following except

A tobacco grower says, "I'm not the only one growing it. If I stop, someone else will be there." Assuming that the man was experiencing dissonance from the fact that he was making his living from a crop that is bad for people's health, he appears to be reducing this dissonance by

In a variation of the "forbidden toy" experiment by Aronson and Carlsmith (1963), another researcher issued mild and severe threats to prevent children from playing with a very attractive toy. Several weeks later, a woman came to the school, allegedly to administer tests to the children. When she left the room to score the tests, children were left alone with the same attractive toy and other less attractive toys. Almost 80 percent of the children who were issued severe threats by the researcher played with the attractive toy; only 30 percent of those children issued mild threats succumbed to temptation. This experiment is noteworthy because it demonstrated that

Dissonance theorists might assert that just as we suffer for the things we like, we also convince ourselves that we like the things for which we suffer. Use concepts related to the justification of effort to explain this statement.

According to results of dissonance studies, who is more likely to believe that lying is truly a heinous, unconscionable, and unforgivable act?

Recall that Aronson and his colleagues asked college students either to compose a persuasive message advocating the use of condoms or to compose and deliver their message in front of a video camera. In addition, half of the participants in each group were made mindful of the times that they didn't use condoms. Which (fictitious) participant below would experience the most dissonance and express a greater willingness to use condoms in the future?

In addition to the pull of charismatic leaders, the social support of fellow cult members, and the isolation of cult members from dissenting viewpoints, why else to cult members behave as they do?

________ refers to the dissonance aroused after we have chosen between two or more alternatives.