Attitudinal Consequences of Induced Discrepancies Between Cognition and Behavior
Arthur R. Cohen
The Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol 24, No. 2, Special Issue: Attitude Changes (Summer 1960), 297-318

    Key terms found in this document:
  • cognition:
    • The process of knowing or perceiving, anything known or perceived.
    • measured in terms of importance and number. ("Reasons?")
      • importance of a cognition: Depends on the situation. Cognitive value is state dependent or situation dependent. Changing situations also rearranges your "priorities".
      • number of cognitions
  • consonance
    • harmony, agreement, congruety. When attitudes, values, and beliefs match the "extrinsic forces" or the outside world. Being in your favorite place with your favorite people who believe what you believe and do the things you believe are "normal."
  • dissonance
    • discord, unharmoniousness. Measured by intensity based on the equal number of arguments on both sides of a decision. Dissonance is at its highest when there is an equal balance of arguments, and the larger the number of equal arguments, the more intense the dissonance. Liars have murdered their spouses because the dissonance of maintaining a deception became too great for them. (The Michael Hacking murder case).
  • resistance
  • low-choice
  • high-choice
  • like
    • What do you like? Make a list by first writing down the places you visit most frequently on seperate pages, then for each place you visit, write down what you like about that particular place.
  • dislike
    • What do you dislike? Make a list of things you dislike, and next to each item, write down the places you might find those things.
  • discrepent behavior
    • Behavior that you must perform in accordance with the wishes of the society in which you desire to be accepted. You may need to act a certain way in order to just get along in your neighborhood for safety's sake. In this case, it's eating a vegetable you don't like, writing an essay in favor of eliminating summer vacations, or writing a position paper against your own stand in a current event issue.
  • discordant beliefs: two held beliefs are shown to be in conflict through rhetoric. The beliefs must already be established to be discordant. Normal discordance is between the outside world and internal cognitive structures (attitudes, beliefs, values, opinions, etc.)
  • attitude
  • values
  • opinion
  • public opinion
  • private opinion
  • behavioral expectations
  • extrinsic forces
  • motivational threshold
  • subjective perception of choice
  • coercion
  • perceived reasonableness of a situation
    Test Propositions
  • The ratio of dissonant and consonant cognitions.
  • The greater the amount of dissonance, the stronger the attempts to reduce it.
  • The more equal the balance between cognitions leading toward and against the behavior, the greater the magnitude of dissonance and consequent attitude change in the direction of the behavior or expression.
  • Whenever one's cognitions about extrinsic forces lead to a public expression different from one's private opinion, dissonance will inevitably result.
  • The number of compelling reasons to change one's attitude is inversely proportional to the effectiveness of the actual attitude change. In other words, less is more. The power of the subjects own imagination to rationalize what he or she has just done is more powerful than any number of arguments aligned to compell the behavior or attitude change. There is no greater cement of belief than one's own imagination.
  • The amount of dissonance created will be a function of the amount of disliked behavior engaged in. Dissonance may be reduced by decreasing the magnitude of dislike (or increasing the magnitude of liking) for the behavior.
  • The higher the reward for a discrepant behavior, th easier it is for the person to justify the action. At a point not yet specified, someone will assume that "Hey! Anyone would do it for that much money." The reward becomes the priority and the value of the action itself is diminished. The development of an attitude toward repeating the behavior without the reward is lost.
  • The lower the reward for a discrepant behavior, the more the subject must work to justify or rationalize the behavior. Consequently, it becomes easier to stimulate the subject to repeat the behavior and reinforce the attitude.
  • fait accompli: some kids that had to eat a vegetable they disliked were told that their parents would find out about it while other kids were not told anything further. The kids that thought their parents would learn about them eating the vegetable had more of an attitude shift towards liking the vegatable. In other words, you better get used to it if you know you're going to have to eat it.
  • People who agreed to submit to a tedious task had increasing negative attitudes toward the task - a straigtforward effect of motivation.
  • People who had several tasks from which to chose, only to discover the task they chose became tedious and boring, rationalized their choice and altered their attitude.
  • At least some prior decision in which the person commits himself to a general negative situation is necessary for the creation of dissonance.
  • The effectiveness of contrary propaganda has three factors
    • Viewers must have the option to not view it or view something else.
    • Viewers must decide to view the contrary propaganda.
    • Viewers must expose themselves to the contrary propaganda.
    • Dissonance results from choosing to watch the contrary message. Having chosen to expose one's self to contradictory information, the more intense the contradictory information, according to the study documented, the greater the dissonance and consequent attitude change.
  • Subjects may only perceive that they have choices
  • Under certain conditions, persons initially least favorable toward an event or communication or person, become most favorable after the experiments.