Using cognitive dissonance to enhance faculty members' attitudes toward teaching online courses

Adopting a reward strategy for inducing college faculty to teach online courses is expected to cause a positive shift of their attitudes. Based upon dissonance theory, a smaller reward will lead to greater attitude change, and this effect will be more pronounced in individualists. The results of an experimental study showed that individualist teachers exhibited greater attitude change under low reward than under high reward, but the reward effect was not prominent in collectivist teachers. Implications for enhancing college teachers' attitudes toward teaching online courses are discussed.     

Induced attitude change on online gaming among adolescents: an application of the less-leads-to-more effect.

The negative impact of Internet use on adolescents has received much popular attention and has also become a popular research topic. How to induce adolescent players to change their attitudes toward online gaming is one of the most important issues in online gaming addiction. The present study is based on the less-leads-to-more effect of dissonance theory. Experimental research was conducted to examine the effects of rewards and decision freedom on attitude change toward online gaming among adolescents considered at risk for addiction. The results supported predictions based on external justification in dissonance theory. Specifically, fewer rewards produced greater attitude change toward online gaming in the condition of personal freedom of choice after participants exhibited attitude-discrepant behavior. However, the less-leads-to-more effect was not prominent in the condition without personal freedom of choice. Adopting a reward strategy to induce game players to disengage online gaming is discussed.     

On the propositional nature of cognitive consistency: Dissonance changes explicit, but not implicit attitudes

Two studies investigated the influence of cognitive dissonance on explicit and implicit attitudes. Employing the induced compliance paradigm, participants wrote a counterattitudinal essay under conditions of either high or low perceived situational pressure; control participants did not write an essay. Consistent with dissonance theory, results indicated a more favorable explicit attitude toward the initially counterattitudinal position when perceived situational pressure was low, but not when it was high. Implicit attitudes, however, were unaffected by dissonance manipulations. Moreover, explicit attitudes were significantly related to implicit attitudes under high perceived situational pressure and control conditions, but not when perceived situational pressure was low. Results are discussed in terms of associative versus propositional modes of information processing.     

Dissonance and self-perception: An integrative view of each theory's proper domain of application

The literature concerning the controversy between dissonance and selfperception theories is reviewed. It is proposed that the two theories be regarded not as “competing” formulations but as complementary ones and, furthermore, that each theory is applicable only to its own specialized domain. Self-perception theory, it is suggested, accurately characterizes attitude change phenomena in the context of attitude-congruent behavior and dissonance theory attitude change in the context of attitude-discrepant behavior. Attitude-congruent is defined as any position within an individual's latitude of acceptance; attitude-discrepant as any position in the latitude of rejection. An experimental test of these notions produced confirming evidence. Subjects who were given an opportunity to misattribute any potential dissonance arousal to an external stimulus did not change their attitudes, relative to low choice subjects, if they were committed to endorsing a position in their latitude of rejection. If the commitment concerned a position in the latitude of acceptance, however, these subjects did exhibit attitude change relative to low choice subjects.     

The Impact of the Antitobacco Norm on the Selected Mode of Cognitive Dissonance Reduction

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that when behavior violates an antismoking injunctive norm, dissonance is aroused, but the injunctive norm constrains how people reduce their discomfort. In Experiment 1, participants with positive or negative attitudes toward public smoking wrote an essay for or against a ban on public smoking. Whereas attitude change occurred for those whose counter‐attitudinal essay supported the antismoking norm, those whose counter‐attitudinal essay violated the antismoking norm did not change their attitudes to reduce dissonance. In Experiment 2, participants who wrote against the ban on public smoking eschewed attitude change in favor of reducing dissonance through trivialization and act rationalization. The discussion focuses on how maintaining social connections makes cognitions resistant to change when dissonance is aroused.     

Attitudes toward buying online as predictors of shopping online for British and American respondents.

This study compared the attitudes toward online shopping of British and American individuals. Using a sample of 327 British and American university students, the British respondents were found to have less favorable attitudes toward online shopping. Attitudes toward online shopping were found to be significant predictors of making online purchases. The implications of these results were discussed and suggestions made for future research.     

Influencing Republicans’ and Democrats’ attitudes toward Obamacare: Effects of imagined vicarious cognitive dissonance on political attitudes

The field of experimental social psychology is appropriately interested in using novel theoretical approaches to implement change in the social world. In the current study, we extended cognitive dissonance theory by creating a new framework of social influence: imagined vicarious dissonance. We used the framework to influence attitudes on an important and controversial political attitude: U.S. citizens’ support for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). 36 Republicans and 84 Democrats were asked to imagine fellow Republicans and Democrats, respectively, making attitude discrepant statements under high and low choice conditions about support for the ACA. The data showed that vicarious dissonance, established by imagining a group member make a counterattitudinal speech under high-choice conditions (as compared to low-choice conditions), resulted in greater support for the Act by Republicans and marginally diminished support by Democrats. The results suggest a promising role for the application of vicarious dissonance theory to relevant societal issues and for further understanding the relationship of dissonance and people’s identification with their social groups.     

Demographic, attitude, and personality differences reported by students enrolled in online versus traditional courses

This study investigated demographic, personality, and attitude differences between students enrolled in online courses and students enrolled in traditional, lecture courses. Subjects were 120 education majors enrolled in required Master's of Education core courses. Students enrolled in either online (n = 51) or traditional course format (n = 69) during summer and fall semesters 2001. The two groups of students were compared on an author-designed questionnaire assessing students' demographic characteristics and attitudes toward both online and traditional instruction and the Cattell Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire. Analysis indicated high demographic and interpersonal similarity between students enrolled in online course formats and students enrolled in traditional, face-to-face course formats. Significant differences in attitude were found between the two groups; online courses were rated higher by online students but viewed with considerable ambivalence by students enrolled in traditional section courses.     

Dissonance theory,self-perception and the bogus pipeline

Studied attitude change following counter-attitudinal advocacy where there was little incentive for subject compliance in an attempt to compare dissonance and self-perception theory predictions. The extent of attitude change was determined either by self-report or by having subjects predict their own true attitudes purportedly monitored by the experimenter using a ‘bogus pipeline’. Forty-eight male and female subjects, students from an introductory Psychology course, were invited to take part in a study of Current Campus Issues. They wrote a short statement that argued against an issue for which they had previously held a positive attitude. Results indicate that there was a significant attitude change in both conditions (p < .003). Attitude change under these circumstances is more successfully explained by the self-perception theory than dissonance theory.     

Using cognitive dissonance to induce adolescents' escaping from the claw of online gaming: the roles of personal responsibility and justification of cost.

The negative impact of the Internet on adolescents has received much attention. How to reduce their pathological use of online gaming is also a critical issue. Based on cognitive dissonance theory, two experiments were conducted to examine whether personal responsibility and justification of cost may play crucial factors in impacting adolescent players' attitude change and their willingness to engage in attitude-discrepant behavior. The results of Experiment 1 revealed that adolescent players who felt a strong sense of responsibility appeared to exhibit greater attitude change. In Experiment 2, the findings indicated that players tended to employ justification of cost in order to reduce or eliminate the dissonance between their attitude toward online gaming and invested cost. Adolescent players who perceived a higher cost in online gaming were less willing to engage in attitude-discrepant behavior. Reducing adolescents ' overuse of online gaming can be appreciated through the perspective of cognitive dissonance.     

Where is the “D” in dissonance?1

The experiment tested the hypothesis that cognitive dissonance has a general drive arousal component which facilitates performance on simple cognitive tasks and impairs performance on complex cognitive tasks After writing a consonant or a dissonant essay dealing with proposed changes in university parking regulations, subjects were given either a simple or a complex task (rote memory or creativity). To maximize dissonance, free choice regarding participation was deliberately emphasized, resulting in a high proportion of subjects who refused to comply with the request Data from refusers were retained and compared with data obtained from compliers Appropriate control groups were employed in order to ascertain whether the results were attributable to the process of self-selection among complier and refuser subjects The dissonance manipulation was successful subjects who wrote dissonant essays subsequently displayed more favorable attitudes toward the parking proposal Their performance on complex cognitive tasks was not unpaired, however, nor did they perform better on simple cognitive tasks than did subjects who experienced no dissonance Subjects who refused to write dissonant essays did better on the complex task than subjects who complied in either the consonant or dissonant conditions Data from the control groups indicated that refusers did not differ from compliers in their initial attitudes toward the proposal nor in their ability to perform the complex cognitive task The results seem to be due to the facilitating effects of refusing to comply with the dissonance instructions, and suggest that the practice of eliminating subjects who refuse to comply may result in the loss of some highly informative data     

How Do Romantic Relationship Satisfaction,Gender Stereotypes,and Gender Relate to Future Time Orientation in Romantic Relationships?

The present study is an investigation into how romantic relationship satisfaction and attitudes toward gender stereotypes about romantic relationship and gender are related to future time orientation in romantic relationships (FTORR). Four hundred and thirteen (208 men and 205 women) university students taking elective psychology courses at Middle East Technical University were given a scale including items about FTORR, romantic relationship satisfaction, and attitudes toward gender stereotypes about romantic relationships. All the participants were then involved in a heterosexual romantic relationship. Multiple regression results showed that for the women, attitudes toward men's assertiveness and men's dominance in relationships were more important predictors of FTORR than relationship satisfaction. For the men, attitudes toward men's assertiveness and romantic relationship satisfaction were important predictors of FTORR, but attitude toward men's dominance was not a predictor of FTORR. Women were more future oriented in their ongoing romantic relationships than were men. Finally, participants who were highly satisfied with their relationships scored higher on FTORR than those who were less satisfied.     

How do romantic relationship satisfaction,gender stereotypes,and gender relate to future time orientation in romantic relationships?

The present study is an investigation into how romantic relationship satisfaction and attitudes toward gender stereotypes about romantic relationship and gender are related to future time orientation in romantic relationships (FTORR). Four hundred and thirteen (208 men and 205 women) university students taking elective psychology courses at Middle East Technical University were given a scale including items about FTORR, romantic relationship satisfaction, and attitudes toward gender stereotypes about romantic relationships. All the participants were then involved in a heterosexual romantic relationship. Multiple regression results showed that for the women, attitudes toward men's assertiveness and men's dominance in relationships were more important predictors of FTORR than relationship satisfaction. For the men, attitudes toward men's assertiveness and romantic relationship satisfaction were important predictors of FTORR, but attitude toward men's dominance was not a predictor of FTORR. Women were more future oriented in their ongoing romantic relationships than were men. Finally, participants who were highly satisfied with their relationships scored higher on FTORR than those who were less satisfied.     

Salience of initial attitude,magnitude of incentive,and attitude change in a forced compliance paradigm

To examine the application of interpersonal simulation findings to cognitive dissonance and incentive theories of attitude change in the forced compliance paradigm, 60 Ss were paid 50 cents or $2.50 to write counterattitudinal essays with salient or nonsalient initial attitudes. Findings showed that the larger incentive yielded greater change for salient pretest attitudes but that the smaller incentive led to more change of nonsalient pretest attitudes. Measures of error in attitude recall and a correlational analysis between pretest, posttest, and recalled attitudes were also consistent with Bem's (1967) hypothesis of isomorphism between the attributions of Ss and observers. It is proposed that remaining simulation data reported in the cognitive dissonance/self-perception controversy may identify additional parameters of attitude changes in forced compliance experiments.     

Cognitive dissonance,double forced compliance,and commitment

Double forced compliance situations are studied to analyse how attitudes change after the performance of two behaviours, rather than just one as in standard forced (or induced) compliance situations. In the present experiment, subjects were asked to execute two successive counterattitudinal behaviours: writing an essay in favour of selective admission to the third year of university (first behaviour) and giving a convincing speech in favour of selective admission (second behaviour). The first behaviour was always performed in a high‐commitment context (free choice, publicness, and consequences), whereas the second was performed in a high‐commitment context as well as in a low‐commitment context (free choice, anonymity, and no consequences). The following hypotheses were tested. (1) If the second behaviour is performed in a high‐commitment context, it will increase the dissonance induced by the first. (2) If the second behaviour is performed in a low‐commitment context, it will decrease the dissonance induced by the first. The results confirmed both hypotheses, which comply with the radical version of dissonance theory (Beauvois & Joule, 1996 , 1999 ). As a whole, these results are incompatible with competing theories of Festinger's theory of dissonance (1957), and in particular with self‐perception and impression‐management theories. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Vicarious dissonance: attitude change from the inconsistency of others

Three studies support the vicarious dissonance hypothesis that individuals change their attitudes when witnessing members of important groups engage in inconsistent behavior. Study 1, in which participants observed an actor in an induced-compliance paradigm, documented that students who identified with their college supported an issue more after hearing an ingroup member make a counterattitudinal speech in favor of that issue. In Study 2, vicarious dissonance occurred even when participants did not hear a speech, and attitude change was highest when the speaker was known to disagree with the issue. Study 3 showed that speaker choice and aversive consequences moderated vicarious dissonance, and demonstrated that vicarious discomfort--the discomfort observers imagine feeling if in an actor's place--was attenuated after participants expressed their revised attitudes.     

Cognitive dissonance and the placebo response: The effect of differential justification for undergoing dummy injections

Studied the effects of cognitive dissonance on pain perception and attitudes towards injections in 48 student subjects of both sexes (average age = 20.5). In a ‘forced compliance’ design, subjects received sets of painful radiant heat stimuli, projected to their inside forearms, which they rated for painfulness and to which their GSR amplitude was recorded. During these stimuli, they ‘chose’ to receive an experimental (placebo) injection. The degree of justification for agreeing to be injected was varied. Subjects in the high-justification (HJ) condition were paid for their compliance, while subjects in the low-justification (LJ) condition were not paid. Two predictions were made from dissonance theory. The first prediction, that only LJ subjects would manifest significant post-injection analgesia when compared to subjects in a no-choice control condition, was confirmed, considering both pain ratings (p < 0.01) and GSR (p < 0.025). The second prediction, that only LJ subjects would rate injections more favourably than control subjects on a post-experimental measure, was not confirmed. The relevance of these findings to explanation of the placebo effect is discussed.     

Book Reviews

This study examined various factors affecting attitude towards seeking professional psychological help (ATSPPH) in Arabs living in the UK: causal beliefs, shame-focused attitudes, confidentiality concerns, ethnic identity and demographic variables. Participants completed an online questionnaire and results indicated that Arabs showed significantly less positive ATSPPH and had stronger causal beliefs in supernatural and non-Western physiology than British Caucasians. Confidentiality concerns, but not shame-focused attitudes were significant predictors of ATSPPH; confidentiality concerns were more significant for Arabs than for British Caucasians. Implications are drawn from the results.     

The relationship between cognitive dissonance and helping behavior

An experiment was conducted to study the relationship between cognitive dissonance and helping behavior. A counterattitudinal procedure was employed to arouse dissonance. For half of the participants, an experimental confederate entered the room and elicited an opportunity for them to offer help. In this situation, fewer subjects in the dissonance condition offered help than subjects in the no‐dissonance condition. The least helping occurred among dissonance subjects with the highest level of commitment to the counterattitudinal task. Those with a medium level of commitment offered significantly more help. Despite the fact that results in line with Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory (subjects' attitudinal change) were obtained in the no‐helping situation, in helping situations, dissonance subjects who offered help presented significantly less attitude change than those who did not offer it. This was considered to be a result of helpfulness reducing dissonance arousal.