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Related Experiment Videos

Dissonance arousal: physiological evidence.

R T Croyle, J Cooper

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
    |October 1, 1983
    PubMed
    Summary
    This summary is machine-generated.

    Cognitive dissonance may cause physiological arousal, as evidenced by increased skin conductance responses in one experiment. However, this arousal was not linked to attitude change, suggesting potential misattribution.

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    Area of Science:

    • Psychology
    • Social Psychology
    • Psychophysiology

    Background:

    • Cognitive dissonance theory posits that individuals experience discomfort when holding conflicting beliefs or attitudes.
    • This discomfort is theorized to motivate attitude change to reduce the dissonance.
    • Previous research has explored the link between cognitive dissonance and physiological arousal, with mixed findings.

    Purpose of the Study:

    • To investigate whether cognitive dissonance is accompanied by measurable physiological arousal.
    • To examine the relationship between attitude change and physiological responses within the induced compliance paradigm.
    • To explore the potential for misattribution of arousal in the context of cognitive dissonance.

    Main Methods:

    • Replication of a standard induced compliance paradigm to elicit attitude change.

    Related Experiment Videos

  • Inclusion of physiological recordings, specifically nonspecific skin conductance responses (SCRs).
  • Comparison of SCRs between subjects in high-choice and low-choice conditions for writing counterattitudinal essays.

    • Main Results:

    • Experiment 1 replicated the expected attitude change pattern in the induced compliance paradigm.
    • Subjects writing counterattitudinal essays under high-choice conditions showed significantly higher nonspecific skin conductance responses.
    • Despite increased physiological arousal, these subjects did not exhibit significant attitude change.

    Conclusions:

    • The findings support the view of cognitive dissonance as an arousal process, indicated by increased SCRs.
    • The lack of attitude change suggests that participants may have misattributed their physiological arousal to the recording equipment.
    • The study highlights the importance of considering psychophysiological measures and misattribution phenomena in dissonance research.