When you have prepared a lot of measures to deal with the rumors of doomsday, but the real doomsday has not come, how do you explain your behavior? When you find that the products you buy online cost more than your friends, how do you resolve your inner discomfort? Most of us will have when our words and deeds are inconsistent with . How do we resolve the discomfort caused by the inconsistency between words and deeds? Most people will change their interpretation of behavior. For example, you will tell yourself that your doomsday measures can accumulate experience for dealing with major events in the future. ; for the matter of spending more money, you will tell yourself that the quality of the product you buy will be better than that of your friends. !
The earliest psychologist to study this kind of cognitive consistency was Heide, but Festinger 's research results are contrary to the previous research conclusions , are also contrary to the results expected by our common sense . And in this series of studies, he also discovered the relationship between our cognition, behavior and attitude .
Experiment purpose:
Test whether individuals will change their opinions and attitudes when their publicly expressed opinions and behaviors are inconsistent.
Experimental hypothesis:
When an individual's publicly expressed views and behaviors are inconsistent, the individual will change his views and attitudes.
Experimental method:
A tray with 12 spools was placed in front of the subject. The experimenter asked the subject to take out the spools from the tray and put them on the table, and then put the spools back to the original place, and repeat this cycle . Participants were asked to complete the task using one hand and at their own speed. At the same time, the experimenter watched and took notes with a stopwatch. In this way, the subjects had to do it over and over again for 30 minutes. Then, the experimenter took away the tray and gave the subject a board with 48 square bolts nailed on it. The subject was required to rotate each square bolt 90 degrees in a clockwise direction and repeat the cycle for another 30 minutes. The purpose of this experimental phase is to produce a consistent negative experience for all subjects.
The experimenter randomly assigned the subjects to the three experimental conditions and . There were 0 people in each experimental condition, , and . After the subjects in the control group completed the above tasks, accepted the interview by the main experimenter. Then the subjects in groups A and B did not receive any information related to the experiment before the experiment, but they needed to lie to the "fake subjects" who later participated in the experiment, saying that the experiment was very interesting. The experimenter will reward the subjects in Group A who are willing to lie US dollars, and the subjects in Group B who are willing to lie will be paid 120 US dollars. The two groups of subjects were then interviewed.
Experiment results:
Usually our common sense would be that the subjects in Group B who received a reward of 20 US dollars would find the experiment more interesting and be more willing to participate in the experiment. However, compared to those who got group B and the control group, the subjects in group A who got 1 preferred the experimental tasks of . Compared with the subjects in Group B, the subjects in A group will find the experiment more interesting and are more willing to participate in similar tasks .
Experimental significance:
Festinger's research has changed our common sense view of attitude change , that is, behavior and attitude are inconsistent, and individuals will change their attitude to a degree affected by external reasons , when external reasons are sufficient to explain one's behavior, then the attitude change will be small, otherwise the attitude change will be large . As shown in the experiment, the reward of of US$120 is enough to explain the inconsistency between their behavior and attitude. Therefore, the attitude change of the subjects in the B group is smaller, and they will still find the experiment boring.
Since Festinger proposed cognitive dissonance theory , many other researchers have made modifications to the theory . Most psychologists believe that there are two basic processes that can make us change our original opinions and attitudes: one is persuasion , that is, others try their best to persuade you to change your views ; the other is cognitive dissonance .Cognitive dissonance plays an important role in changing real-world behavior .
experimental application:
Festinger's research theories and results have been continuously supported and affirmed by in the field of social science research. An interesting study found that simply by observing someone you like or respect engaging in behavior that is inconsistent with your attitudes you can experience cognitive dissonance and change your own attitude, without any physical involvement. This is called vicarious dissonance. However, when studies are conducted on smokers quitting smoking, does not enable smokers to successfully quit. In a 2007 study, researchers found that smokers often express a "self-exemption" belief along these lines, that is, smokers will believe that smoking is indeed harmful to health, but they themselves will be the exception.
Reference for this article: "40 Studies on Changing Psychology"
Okay, that's all for today's knowledge sharing. If you are very interested in psychology and want to know more, you can read psychology books, or you can systematically learn psychology through the basic training course for psychological counselors.
Sanjunyuan, insight into you, me and him! Learn a little bit about psychology every day to help you understand yourself better!
