Dealing With Threats to The Self Part 2

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Dealing With Threats to The SelfPart 2
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Motivated reasoning

• The tendency to interpret information in a way
  that favors pre-existing beliefs and desires.
• Political debates
• Health information

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Motivated Reasoning
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Cognitive Dissonance

• A state of psychological tension that is aroused
  when a person simultaneously holds two thoughts
  that contradict one another.

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Theory of Cognitive Dissonance

• Inconsistency between thoughts

Experience cognitive dissonance
Attempt to reduce dissonance
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Festinger Carlsmith (1959)

• Participants did boring tasks for 1 hour.
• Paid 1 or 20 to tell another subject that the
  tasks were enjoyable.
• During interview, asked how much they enjoyed the
  tasks.

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Types of Cognitive Dissonance

• Attitude-Behavior inconsistency
• Effort justification
• Post-decisional dissonance

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Self-Affirmation Theory

• People want to see themselves positively.
• Dissonance is a threat to the self.
• When dissonance is aroused, people can deal with
  it directly or by affirming the self in an
  unrelated domain.

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Steele Lui (1983)

• Control group
• Dissonance----------------------? Attitude change
• Self-Affirmation group
• Dissonance--Self-Affirmation?Less attitude
  change

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Self-Affirmation and Motivated Reasoning

• Cohen et al. (2000)
• Ps were pro-choice or pro-life
• Read a debate b/w activists on each side of the
  issue.
• Self-affirmation manipulation.

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How do People Deal with Self-Threats?

• Self-Handicappingprior to performance
• Self-Serving Biasafter performance
• Motivated reasoning
• Change thoughts/attitudes/behaviors to reduce
  discomfort (cognitive dissonance theory).
• Affirm an unrelated part of the self
  (self-affirmation theory).