Exam 6: Cognitive Dissonance and the Need to Protect Our Self-Esteem

During the Kavadi ritual in the nation of Mauritius, participants engage in either low-ordeal rituals or severe-ordeal rituals, before being asked to donate to their temple. The low-ordeal participants must pray and sing collectively while the severe-ordeal participants are pierced with needles and hooks and must endure pain. When researchers allowed participants to donate to their temple, they found __________.

Lisa is a car salesperson. She has just gotten you to agree to a deal on a new car and to write out a check for the down payment. She takes this to her manager and comes back a while later saying that, because of taxes and fees, the price of the car will actually come out to $600 over what you agreed upon. According to the research on lowballing, which of the following is most likely to occur?

Ronald wants to start a new club on campus, and he really wants his members to be involved and love the club. How would you suggest he use effort justification to increase members' sense of enjoyment of the club and their loyalty to the club?

When interviewing dictators, researcher Riccardo Orizio found that __________.

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.

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?

Jecker and Landy (1969) conducted an experiment in which some participants were asked by the experimenter to return monetary compensation to him, others were asked by the department secretary to return the money to a fund, and still others received no request for the return of their compensation. Participants who were approached by the experimenter evaluated him better than did participants in the other two experimental conditions. These findings support the notion of __________.

George thinks of himself as an honest person until his brother reminds him that he's been known to keep extra change given to him by a cashier and to stock his home office for a sideline business with supplies taken from his job. George is now probably feeling a sense of discomfort known as __________.

According to the authors of your text, every time we make a decision, we experience some amount of dissonance. Why?

According to the authors of your text, what is one way that people can begin to learn from their mistakes?

When Steele had science majors and business majors wear lab coats during their experiment rating albums, they found that the lab coats served __________ for the science majors, but not for the business majors.

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?

Threats of severe punishment are NOT likely to change behaviors in the absence of the person who punishes, because such severe threats provide __________.

Hai has been taking expensive beta-carotene supplements for years because he believes they will reduce his risk of cancer. Hai has just learned that a well-controlled study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine showed that beta-carotene supplements do not reduce cancer risk. Hai is probably experiencing __________.

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?

Yuriko, a Japanese student, and Jill, an American student, have both participated in an experiment in which they were asked-and agreed-to write a counterattitudinal essay. According to findings on dissonance reduction across cultures by Sakai (1999), who is more likely to engage in dissonance reduction?

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

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?

Suppose that both Oscar and Sam went through hazing rituals for the same fraternity. Oscar went through a very long and involved hazing process while Sam went through relatively mild rituals. After they both got into the fraternity, they realized that there were a lot of negative things associated with membership that they hadn't expected. According to cognitive dissonance, which of the following would you expect to happen?

According to the authors of your text, what is one major danger of engaging in self-justification strategies?