Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Study Guide
Week 6
For example, a belief that a charity does good work has no connection
with a belief in the lack of standardization of a swiss language
A consonant relationship.
For example, a belief that a charity does good work, and you give
money to them
A dissonant relationship.
For example, a belief that a charity wastes money, but you give money
to them. Or the smoker dilemma.
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What are the properties of dissonance? What sort of state is it?
Explain how the importance of the elements and the issue influence
dissonance.
The importance of the elements and the issue vary in magnitude and
therefore influence the varying magnitude of the dissonance.
Example:
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Minimizing dissonant elements: everything causes cancer so
smoking wont matter.
Adding new consonant elements: smoking prevents colds,
controls weight.
Change the importance: smoking is expensive but I can afford
it, my first career doesn't really matter because I will probably
have several.
We basically never get to choose between two alternatives which are perfectly
good/bad in every way. Not a ton of easy choices. We usually face a nuanced
choiceboth have good and bad outcomes.
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Has research commonly detected postdecisional spreading of alternatives?
Yes.
The chosen alternative is temporarily rated more negatively and the unchosen
alternative is temporarily rated more positively.
People may want to back out/reverse their decision following the choice. Not
all decisions are reversible, like skydiving. Where they are reversible, however,
they very may want to reverse their decision.
Persuasion occurs even after people make a decision so follow-up efforts can
be crucial.
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Explain the dissonance theory view of induced-compliance situations. What is the
key influence on the amount of dissonance experienced in such situations?
If one is not experiencing very much dissonance, they are unlikely to change
their attitudes very much.
Explain, from a dissonance perspective, the operation of low-price offers. From the
marketer's point of view, what is the ideal amount of incentive to offer?
For example, Write an essay on why your dad is a Brookstone dad and you
could win $10,000. If it was guaranteed, then there would be no dissonance.
But since its a chance, dissonance is activated.
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For example, at the end of your first year working in Amazon Warehouse, they
offer $2,000 for you to quit. They say we hope you dont!. Most people dont
take it but they could have gotten $2,000. To justify their decision, people say
this is a great job, and I love working here. At the end of the second year,
Amazon offers $3,000 if you quit. The $ amount grows by $1000 every year.
And people dont take it. If they had offered $5,000 at the beginning, people
might bail, but the price constantly going up as the price of compliance moves
to meet peoples attitudes becoming more positive.
Explain how a persuader can use hypocrisy induction to change behavior; identify a
necessary condition for such effects.
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conservation) or make a video where they describe times they didnt practice
safe sex.
If PBC is not sufficiently high, then hypocrisy induction can lead to boomerang
effects in which the attitude changes in the opposite direction of that desired
by the persuader. People will make their negative behaviors be matched by
negative attitudes.
For example, in a study about recycling, people actually recycled less after
participating, because they decided recycling wasnt a such a good idea to
match and justify their neglectful behavior.
What is the selective exposure hypothesis? Explain how the hypothesis reflects the
main tenets of dissonance theory.
The selective exposure hypothesis states that people seek out information
supportive (consonant) with their current beliefs and avoid non-supportive
information (dissonance). This reflects dissonance theory because people seek
to avoid dissonance.
Describe the usual research design for studying selective exposure. In such designs,
what sort of result represents evidence of selective exposure?
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Factors that influence information exposure
Explain how curiosity can influence information exposure (and can override a
preference for supportive information).
Example: Participant rates how qualified a job seeker seems (half of the
participants given qualified job seeker and half given terrible job
seeker). Participant asks would you hire them?. Participants choose
from literature of why people got hired and they choose the opposite
of their choice to see why people would hire their alternative.
Explain how fairness norms can influence information exposure (and can
override a preference for supportive information).
Identify three broad means by which advocates might seek to get a hearing for their
views.
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