Chapter 7 Cognitive Dissonance The Notion of Attitude o An attitude is the manner disposition feeling or position one holds with regard to a person or thing a tendency or orientation especially of the mind o We cannot necessarily observe these attitudes o Many theories try to explain how form change and relate to other cognitive processes that influence how we think act and feel Consistency Theories Attitudes on a Balancing Act o o o o In general are theories that deal with how are mind processes and or categorizes information stimuli o As information is taken in it is grouped with similar information to form a pattern that helps make it easier to understand and recall the information later Sometimes even though the information we process relates in some way to information stored in our minds it is inconsistent with the pattern attitude we have already created Because the mind processes information differently depending on the environment and time of stimuli there are several different types of Consistency Theories Cognitive Dissonance focuses on the balance between the pieces of information in our heads that come together to form our attitude about something o According to Leon Festinger the creator of CD Cognitive Dissonance is a feeling of imbalance where we do or say or think things that don t fit are dissonant when our established beliefs opinions or values and we become uncomfortable as a result In order to lessen the uncomfortable feelings that dissonance produces we are driven to reduce or eliminate dissonance Dissing the Dissonance o o The inner motivation to eliminate dissonance is one of the core principles of Cognitive Dissonance Theory The motivation to eliminate Cognitive Dissonance can result in behavior and attitude change Three types of cognitive Relationships Consonant relationship our beliefs and behaviors coincide o o Dissonant relationship our beliefs do not fit our behaviors Irrelevant relationship beliefs and behaviors do not relate o Four Assumptions of Cognitive Dissonance Psychological inconsistencies lead to dissonance o Humans want consistence between thoughts and beliefs o o Dissonance is cognitively uncomfortable o We are psychologically driven to reduce dissonance Concepts and processes of Cognitive Dissonance o Magnitude of Dissonance How strong your feelings of dissonance are will influence what you do to reduce those icky feelings you have about whatever is making you dissonant o Three Factors that influence Magnitude of Dissonance How important the issue event is The dissonance ratio The number of dissonant vs consonant feelings you have about the issue or event The strength of reasoning used to justify the discrepancy between dissonant consonant feelings Coping with Dissonance o Many of the techniques used to decrease dissonance are cognitively based Mentally add subtract cognitions to reduce dissonance ratio Convince yourself that the dissonant feeling are not as important as you originally thought Distort the dissonant information to make it fit with your original beliefs Cognitive Dissonance and Perception o o In general people will work to avoid information that increases dissonance There are four basic ways to avoid this Selective exposure Seeking out info that is consonant consistent with existing beliefs attitudes helps us avoid and reduce dissonance like seeks like Selective Attention paying attention to information that is consonant attitudes beliefs Selective Interpretation Taking ambiguous information and molding it to fit your needs and increase consonance Selective Retention Remembering and learning consonant information more easily than dissonant information The principle of Minimal Justification o Using the least amount of effort incentive to achieve the greatest result Festinger Carlsmith study 1957 Participants were asked to do a really boring task for about an hour Offered either 1 or 20 dollars to convince the next participant that it was fun After it was over those paid 20 dollars were the ones that admitted to it being boring and those paid 1 dollar still thought it was fun Why Those paid 1 dollar experienced CD and had to convince that it was fun in order to convince someone else Let me persuade you o o Buyers Remorse The dissonance we experience after making a large purchase and the steps taken to justify our actions Confidence in your decision Bettors were asked about how confident they were about the horse they bet on directly after they placed the bet more confident after than before o Doomsday Cult Leaders used selective interpretation to justify why their predictions didn t come true in order to reduce the dissonance of followers and reenergize the zeal of followers Critiques Strengths of cognitive Dissonance o Criticisms Dissonance as the core concept is lacking Self concept interferes with dissonance Lack of practical utility Testability issues hard to disprove o Strengths Heuristic value a lot of research Offers insight into the relationship between attitudes cognitions affect behavior Broad scope Chapter 8 Expectancy Violations Defining Personal Space EVT developed by Judee by Burgoon 1978 as a means of examining the influence that nonverbal communication has on message production in fact it was originally called Nonverbal Expectancy Violations Theory The term nonverbal was dropped in order to include all types of behaviors that violate expectations The basic premise of EVT is that people in general have certain expectations about the behavior verbal and nonverbal of others EVT not only examines these expectations but also examines what happens when verbal and nonverbal expectations are violated EVT and space relations The use of personal space and distance in conversations also called Proxemics is one major focus of EVT Burgoon emphasizes that humans have two competing needs when it comes to space Affiliation and Personal Space Affiliation refers to the need to belong to a group Personal Space is the invisible variable volume of space surrounding an individual which defines that individuals preferred distance from others Edward hall 1966 identified four primary zones of personal space in North American culture that are helpful in studying in the way people use space in conversation as well as how people perceive another person s use of space Intimate Distance 0 to 18 inches intimate relationships Personal Distance 18 inches to 4 feet family and close friends Social Distance 4 to 12 feet casual social settings
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