Abstract
Imagine that you have bought a car which you expect to drive faster than 120 miles per hour. After breaking it in you try to reach the car’s top speed and find that it is less than 120 miles per hour. Selling the car would cause financial loss, so you have to keep it. Will you be dissatisfied with the car from now on and think you made a wrong decision each time you drive it? Fortunately, there are certain cognitive strategies which allow you to enjoy driving the car after this experience of inconsistency between your expectation about the car’s top speed and its actual performance. You may search for positive information, for example that 110 miles per hour is still much faster than most other cars can do; that your car is safer and more comfortable than other cars, etc. Such cognitive operations will reduce the discontent you felt when experiencing the inconsistency between the car’s actual speed and your expectation about it.
Preparation of this chapter was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. The authors are grateful to Dieter Frey, Julius Kuhl, and Gün Semin for helpful comments on an earlier draft.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Ach, N. (1910). Über den Willensakt und das Temperament. Leipzig: Quelle und Meyer.
Aronson, E. (1968). Dissonance theory: Progress and problems. In R.P. Abelson, E. Aronson, W. J. McGuire, T. H. Newcomb, M. J. Rosenberg & P. H. Tannenbaum (Eds.) Theories of cognitive consistency: A sourcebook (pp.5–27). Chicago: Rand McNally.
Aronson, E. (1969). The theory of cognitive dissonance: A current perspective. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 4, (pp. 115–133). New York: Academic Press.
Aronson, E., & Carlsmith, J.M. (1963). Effect of severity of threat on the devaluation of forbidden behavior. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 66, 584–588.
Beckmann, J. (1984). Kognitive Dissonanz: Eine handlungstheoretische Perspektive. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, (a)
Beckmann, J. (1984). Extrinsic vs. intrinsic reduction of cognitive dissonance. (Manuscript submitted for publication.) Max-Planck-Institute for Psychological Research, Muinch, FRG. (b)
Beckmann, J., & Kuhl, J. (1984) Altering information to gain action-control: Functional aspects of human information processing in decision-making. Journal of Research in Personality, 18, 224–237.
Biderman, A.D. (1967). Life and death in extreme captivity situations. In M. H. Appley & R. Trumbull (Eds.) Psychological stress: Issue in research, (pp. 242–264). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Bramel, D. (1968). Dissonance, expectation, and the self. In R. P. Abelson, E. Aronson, W. J. McGuire, T. M. Newcomb, H.M. Rosenberg & P.H. Tannenbaum (Eds.), Theories of cognitive consistency: A sourcebook (pp.355–365). Chicago: Rand McNally.
Brehm, J. W. (1956). Postdecision changes in the desirability of alternatives. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 52, 384–389.
Brehm, J. W. (1962) An experiment on thirst. In J. W. Brehm & A. R. Cohen (Eds.) Explorations in cognitive dissonance. New York: Wiley.
Brehm, J.W., & Crocker, J.C. (1962). An experiment on hunger. In J.W. Brehm & A. R. Cohen (Eds.) Explorations in cognitive dissonance, (pp. 137–143). New York: Wiley.
Brehm, J.W., & Wicklund, R.A. (1970). Regret and dissonance reduction as a function of postdecision salience of dissonant information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 14, 1–7.
Canon, L. K. (1964). Self-confidence and selective exposure to information. In L. Festinger (Ed.) Conflict, decision and dissonance (pp.83–95). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Chapanis, N.P. & Chapanis, A. (1964). Cognitive dissonance. Five years later. Psychological Bulletin, 61, 1–22.
Cohen, E. A. (1953). Human behavior in the concentration camp. New York: Norton.
Darley, J. H., & Batson, C. D. (1973). From Jerusalem to Jericho: A study of situational and dis-positional variables in helping behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 27, 100–108.
Ehrlich, D., Guttman, J., Schönbach, P, & Mills, J. (1957). Postdecision exposure to relevant information. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 54, 98–102.
Feather, N.T. (1963). Cigarette smoking and lung cancer: A study of cognitive dissonance. Australian Journal of Psychology, 14, 55–64.
Fellner, C. H., & Marshall, J. R. (1970). Kidney donors. In J. Macauley & L. Berkowitz (Eds.), Altruism and helping behavior, (pp. 269–281). New York: Academic Press.
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Evanston Ill.: Row, Peterson.
Festinger, L. (Ed.). (1964). Conflict, decision, and dissonance. Standord: Stanford University Press.
Festinger, L., & Carlsmith, J. M. (1959). Cognitive consequences of forced compliance. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58, 203–210.
Freedman, J. L. (1965). Preference for dissonant information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2, 287–289.
Freedman, J. L., & Sears, D. O. (1965). Selective exposure. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 2 (pp. 57–97). New York: Academic Press.
Frey, D. (1981). Informationssuche und Informationsbewertung bei Entscheidungen. Bern: Huber.
Frey, D., & Irle, M. (1972). Some conditions to produce a dissonance and an incentive effect in a “Forced-compliance” situation. European Journal of Social Psychology, 2, 45–54.
Grabitz, H. J. (1971). Zur Beziehung von Inertia-Effekt und sequentieller Position widersprechender Ereignisse bei der Revision subjektiver Wahrscheinlichkeiten. Psychologische Forschung, 35, 35–45. (a)
Grabitz, H.-J. (1971). Die Bewertung von Information vor Entscheidungen in Abhängigkeit von der verfolgten Alternative und der Verläßlichkeit der Information. Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie, 2, 383–388. (b)
Irle, M. (1975). Lehrbuch der Sozialpsychologie. Göttingen: Hogrefe.
Irle, M. (Ed.). (1982). Decision making: Social psychological and socioeconomic analyses. Berlin/ New York: De Gruyter.
Kelly, G. (1962). Comments on J. Brehm, Motivational effects of cognitive dissonance. In M.D. Jones (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation 1962 (pp.78–81). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
Kiesler, C. A. (1971). The Psychology of Commitment. New York: Academic Press.
Klinger, E. (1971). Structure and functions of fantasy. New York: Wiley.
Klinger, E., Barta, S.G., Mahoney, T.W., et al. (1976). Motivation, mood, and mental events. Patterns and implications for adaptive processes. In G. Serban (Ed.), Psychopathology of human adaptation (pp.95–112). New York: Plenum.
Kuhl, J. (1981). Aufmerksamkeitslenkung und Handlungskontrolle. (Unpublished manuscript.) Ruhr-Universität Bochum, FRG.
Kuhl, J. (1982). Action vs. state-orientation as a mediator between motivation and action. In W. Hacker, W. Volpert & M. von Cranach, M. (Eds.), Cognitive and motivational aspects of action. Amsterdam: North-Holland-Publishing Co.
Kuhl, J. (1984). Volitional aspects of achievement motivation and learned helplessness: Toward a comprehensive theory of action-control. In B. A. Maher (Ed.), Progress in Experimental Personality Research. Vol.13, New York: Academic Press.
Kuhl, J., & Beckmann, J. (1983). Handlungskontrolle und Umfang der Informationsverarbeitung: Wahl einer einfachen (nicht optimalen) Entscheidungsregel zugunsten rascher Handlungsbereitschaft. Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie, 14, 241–250.
Lewin, K. (1935). A dynamic theory of personality: Selected papers. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Lewin, K. (1951). Field theory in social science. New York: Harper and Row.
Lewin, K (1952). Group decision and social change. In G. Swanson, T. Newcomb & E. Hartley (Eds.), Readings in Social Psychology (pp. 197–211). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Linder, D. E., & Crane, K. A. (1970). A reactance theory analysis of predecisional cognitive processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 15, 258–264.
Linder, D.E., Wortman, C.B., & Brehm, J.W. (1971). Temporal changes in predecision preferences among choice alternatives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 19, 282–284.
Mann, L., Janis, I. L., & Chaplin, R. (1969). Effects of anticipation of forthcoming information on predecisional processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 11, 10–16.
March, J.G., & Simon, H.A. (1958). Organizations. New York: Wiley.
Miller, G. A., Galanter, E., & Pribram, K.-H. (1960). Plans and the structure of behavior. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Miller, N. E. (1944). Experimental studies of conflict. In J. M. V. Hunt (Ed.), Personality and the behavioral disorders (Vol.1) (pp. 431–465). New York: Ronald Press.
Miller, N.E. (1951). Learnable drives and rewards. In S.S. Stevens (Ed.), Handbook of experimental psychology (pp.435–472). New York: Wiley.
Mills, J., Aronson, E., & Robinson, H. (1959). Selectivity in exposure to information. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 59, 250–253.
Mills, J., & O’Neal, E. (1971). Anticipated choice, attention, and the halo effect. Psychonomic Science, 22, 2331–2333.
Möntmann, V., & Schönborn, C. (1982). Operationale und theoretische Probleme zum Verlauf der Änderungsresistenz von Kognitionen. Manuscript, University of Mannheim, FRG.
O’Neal, E. (1971). Influence of future choice importance and arousal upon the halo effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 19, 334–340.
O’Neal, E., & Mills, J. (1969). The influence of anticipated choice on the halo effect. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 5, 347–351.
Rosen, S. (1961). Postdecision affinity for incompatible information. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63, 188–190.
Rosenberg, G. J. (1956). Cognitive structure and attitudinal affect. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 53, 367–372.
Sears, D. O. (1965). Biased indoctrination and selectivity of exposure to new information. Sociometry, 28, 363–376.
Songer-Nocks, E. (1976). Situational factors affecting the weighting of predictor components in the Fishbein model. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 12, 59–69.
Walster, E. (1964). The temporal sequence of post-decision processes. In L. Festinger (Ed.), Conflict, decision and dissonance (pp. 112–127). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
White, R. W. (1959). Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence. Psychological Review, 66, 297–333.
Wicklund, R. A., & Brehm, J. W. (1976). Perspectives on cognitive dissonance. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1976.
Wicklund, R.A., & Frey, D. (1981) Cognitive consistency: Motivational vs. non-motivational perspectives. Social Cognition, 1, 141–163.
Younger, J.C., Walker, L., & Arrowood, A. J. (1977). Postdecision dissonance at the fair. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 3, 284–287.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1985 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Beckmann, J., Irle, M. (1985). Dissonance and Action Control. In: Kuhl, J., Beckmann, J. (eds) Action Control. SSSP Springer Series in Social Psychology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69746-3_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69746-3_7
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-69748-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-69746-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive