Forced Compliance, Cognitive Dissonance, and Attitudes
Poster Number
42
Format
Poster Presentation
Faculty Mentor Name
Gary Howells
Faculty Mentor Department
Psychology
Abstract/Artist Statement
Cognitive dissonance is characterized by the discomfort a person may experience when being forced to say something that is contradictory to their private opinion (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1957). Research has demonstrated that under certain circumstances a person’s private opinion may change to match their behavior Festinger & Carlsmith, 1957). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of forced compliance on a person’s opinion. Participants were given a list of either positive or negative words and pictures of war. Participants were prompted to write a story using the list of words and pictures for five minutes. After completing their story they were asked to read it out loud. Upon completion participants were asked to fill out the Peterson-Thurstone War Attitude Scale and asked to rate pictures using the Self- Assessment Manikin (SAM) Scale for Valence. Preliminary analysis were conducted on a subset four individuals (Mean age= 20.5, SD= .58) indicated to significant differences regarding attitudes towards war. Moreover, no significant differences were found for participant’s scores on the SAM scale. Overall, this suggests that a person’s overt behavior does not affect a person’s private opinion, which is contradictory to past research.
Location
DeRosa University Center, Ballroom
Start Date
21-4-2011 6:00 PM
End Date
21-4-2011 8:00 PM
Forced Compliance, Cognitive Dissonance, and Attitudes
DeRosa University Center, Ballroom
Cognitive dissonance is characterized by the discomfort a person may experience when being forced to say something that is contradictory to their private opinion (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1957). Research has demonstrated that under certain circumstances a person’s private opinion may change to match their behavior Festinger & Carlsmith, 1957). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of forced compliance on a person’s opinion. Participants were given a list of either positive or negative words and pictures of war. Participants were prompted to write a story using the list of words and pictures for five minutes. After completing their story they were asked to read it out loud. Upon completion participants were asked to fill out the Peterson-Thurstone War Attitude Scale and asked to rate pictures using the Self- Assessment Manikin (SAM) Scale for Valence. Preliminary analysis were conducted on a subset four individuals (Mean age= 20.5, SD= .58) indicated to significant differences regarding attitudes towards war. Moreover, no significant differences were found for participant’s scores on the SAM scale. Overall, this suggests that a person’s overt behavior does not affect a person’s private opinion, which is contradictory to past research.