Exam 6: The Need to Justify Our Actions

Imagine you really enjoy lying out in the sun to get a deep, dark tan. If you heard arguments both for and against tanning, you would probably remember ________ arguments for tanning, and ________ arguments against tanning.

"There's no way I'd give up drinking! I'd just be stressed out all the time" says Lilly, as she sips her third martini of the evening. Lilly's comments about her drinking habit are an example of using ________ to reduce cognitive dissonance.

When people act contrary to their self-perceptions as reasonable and sensible people, they experience a feeling known as ________.

What is the broad message or theme about the processes of self-justification and the need to enhance self-esteem? Humans are

Based on research by Aronson and Carlsmith (1963) in which children were threatened with either mild or severe punishment for playing with a forbidden toy, which of the following situations would make a child most want to play with a toy?

According to the authors of your text, why would people experience cognitive dissonance after investing a lot of time and effort in pursuit of a goal that falls short of their expectations?

Research in which participants' brains were scanned with MRIs while doing a dissonance-producing task showed that when people encounter dissonance, the ________ areas of the brain decrease in activity, and when dissonance is resolved, the ________ areas of the brain "light up."

Assume that you were a participant in the experiment conducted by Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) in which participants were paid either a large or small sum of money to tell an innocent stranger that the boring, tedious task you had just completed was really enjoyable and very interesting. Further assume that you were paid a large amount of money to tell the stranger that lie. In this situation, you would be most likely to

When our behaviors are inconsistent with our values or beliefs, we are not likely to experience cognitive dissonance if

Which of the following people is using an internal justification to reduce dissonance?

Because dissonance reduction processes are mostly unconscious, people

Mahmoud wants his seven-year-old daughter to learn that littering is bad. According to cognitive dissonance theory, how should Mahmoud teach his daughter not to be a litterbug? Mahmoud should

Your text describes several situations in which a person may decide to behave immorally, a behavior which is likely to arouse a fair amount of cognitive dissonance. How are people most likely to reduce this dissonance stemming from an immoral act such as lying or cheating?

According to the authors of your text, why do young people often fail to use condoms every time they have sex?

Why did participants in an experiment conducted by Berscheid and her colleagues (1968) derogate their victims unless they thought they would switch roles with the victim and receive shocks themselves? In this case, participants

People generally ________ think they will like to be able to easily change a decision they've made; however, the research on cognitive dissonance suggests that people actually are ________ with their choice when a decision is more permanent.

You have worked extremely hard to attain a goal, but soon realize that the goal is not as exciting as you expected. You will probably

In research presented in the text, a social psychologist had army reservists eat fried grasshoppers, allegedly as part of a research project on survival foods. Reservists who ________ liked the grasshoppers more.

Lisa and Marcie have a really tough exam in anthropology. Both women are considering cheating on the exam. Based on what you read about cognitive dissonance, Lisa, who ________, is likely to later report that all cheaters should be punished severely, and Marcie, who ________, is likely to report that cheating really is no big deal because there are no victims.

The authors of your text explain that when political leaders get caught up in a cycle of self-justification, it can have particularly dangerous consequences. What is their advice for avoiding such a cycle in your own life?