A painful Reminder: The role of level and salience of attitude importance in cognitive dissonance

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin

Volumn 35, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 126-137

  Starzyk, Katherine B ^a   Fabrigar, Leandre R ^b   Soryal, Ashley S ^c   Fanning, Jessie J ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA   (Canada)

^b QUEEN S UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

^c UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO   (Canada)

Author keywords

Attitude change; Attitude importance; Attitude importance salience; Cognitive dissonance; Trivialization

Indexed keywords

ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR; ARTICLE; ATTITUDE; COGNITION; DECISION MAKING; DEFENSE MECHANISM; EDUCATION; FEMALE; HUMAN; MALE; PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATION; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; STUDENT;

ADAPTATION, PSYCHOLOGICAL; ATTITUDE; CHOICE BEHAVIOR; COGNITIVE DISSONANCE; DEFENSE MECHANISMS; FEMALE; HUMANS; MALE; PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATION; STUDENTS; TRAINING SUPPORT;

EID: 58049137734     PISSN: 01461672     EISSN: 15527433     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0146167208325613     Document Type: Article

References (28)

1. Allyn, J., & Festinger, L. (1961). The effectiveness of unanticipated persuasive communications. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 62, 35-40.
2. Bassili, J.N. (1996). Meta-judgmental versus operative indexes of psychological attributes: The case of measures of attitude strength. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 637-653.
3. Boninger, D.S., Krosnick, J.A., & Berent, M.K. (1995). The causes of attitude importance: Self-interest, social identification, and values. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 61-80.
4. Brownstein, A.L., Read, S.J., & Simon, D. (2004). Bias at the racetrack: Effects of individual expertise and task importance on predecision reevaluation of alternatives. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 891-904.
5. Cialdini, R.B., Levy, A., Herman, C.P., Kozlowski, L., & Petty, R.E. (1976). Elastic shifts of opinion: Determinants of direction and durability. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 663-672.
6. Cooper, J. (2007). Cognitive dissonance: Fifty years of classic theory. London: Sage.
7. Eisenstadt, D., & Leippe, M.R. (2005). Dissonance and importance: Attitude change effects of personal relevance and race of beneficiary of a counterattitudinal advocacy. Journal of Social Psychology, 145, 447-467.
8. Eisenstadt, D., Leippe, M.R., Rivers, J.A., & Stambush, M.A. (2003). Counterattitudinal advocacy on a matter of prejudice: Effects of distraction, commitment, and personal importance. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 2123-2152.
9. Elliot, A.J., & Devine, P.G. (1994). On the motivational nature of cognitive dissonance: Dissonance as psychological discomfort. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 382-394.
10. Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
11. Fine, B.J. (1957). Conclusion-drawing, communicator credibility, and anxiety as factors in opinion change. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 54, 369-374.
12. Gorn, G.J. (1975). The effects of personal involvement, communication discrepancy, and source prestige on reaction to communications on separatism. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, 7, 369-386.
13. Gosling, P., Denizeau, M., & Oberle, D. (2006). Denial of responsibility: A new mode of dissonance reduction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 722-733.
14. Gotz-Marchand, B., Gotz, J., & Irle, M. (1974). Preference of dissonance reduction modes as a function of their order, familiarity and reversibility. European Journal of Social Psychology, 4, 201-228.
15. Haddock, G., Rothman, A.J., Reber, R., & Schwarz, N. (1999). Forming judgments of attitude certainty, intensity, and importance: The role of subjective experiences. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 771-782.
16. Harmon-Jones, E. (2000). Cognitive dissonance and experienced negative affect: Evidence that dissonance increases experienced negative affect even in the absence of aversive consequences. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 1490-1501.
17. Harmon-Jones, E., & Mills, J. (Eds.). (1999). Cognitive dissonance: Progress on a pivotal theory in social psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
18. Jones, E.E. (1985). Major developments in social psychology during the past five decades. In G. Lindzey & E. Aronson (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (Vol. I, 3 rd ed., pp. 47-107). New York: Random House.
19. Krosnick, J.A. (1989). Attitude importance and attitude accessibility. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 15, 297-308.
20. Krosnick, J.A., & Petty, R.E. (1995). Attitude strength: An overview. In R. E. Petty & J. A. Krosnick (Eds.), Attitude strength: Antecedents and consequences (pp. 1-24). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
21. Leippe, M.R., & Eisenstadt, D. (1994). Generalization of dissonance reduction: Decreasing prejudice through induced compliance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 395-413.
22. Mills, J., & Ford, T.E. (1995). Effects of importance of a prospective choice on private and public evaluations of the alternatives. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 256-266.
23. O'Neal, E. (1971). Influence of future choice importance and arousal upon the halo effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 19, 334-340.
24. Shaffer, D.R. (1975). Some effects of initial attitude importance on attitude change. Journal of Social Psychology, 97, 279-288.
25. Simon, L., Greenberg, J., & Brehm, J. (1995). Trivialization: The forgotten mode of dissonance reduction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 247-260.
26. Tourangeau, R., Rasinski, K.A., & D' Andrade, R. (1991). Attitude structure and belief accessibility. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 27, 48-75.
27. Tyszka, T. (1998). Two pairs of conflicting motives in decision making. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 74, 189-211.
28. Wicklund, R.A., & Brehm, J.W. (1976). Perspectives on cognitive dissonance. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.