Exam 6: The Need to Justify Our Actions

According to the tenets of dissonance theory, when we cannot find sufficient external justification for acts such as saying something we don't truly believe, we will most likely

Jennifer's dad wants to convince her to do her homework as soon as she gets home from school. To ensure that Jennifer actually does her homework immediately-whether or not he is there to keep an eye on her-Jennifer's dad should provide

Why do people often experience postdecision dissonance?

According to your authors, threats of severe punishment ultimately teach people

When unscrupulous salespeople use lowballing as a means of selling cars, they take advantage of buyers' illusions that their decision to buy a particular car was

What is counterattitudinal advocacy? How is it related to notions of internal and external justification?

In experiments on counterattitudinal advocacy, people change their attitudes more the lower the external incentives. This finding is inconsistent with the ________ approach to psychology.

In an experiment by Takaku (2006) on road rage, when drivers went through a driving simulation in which they accidentally cut off another driver, and then were cut off themselves, they were less likely to

Imagine that you have just moved into a house with four other people. One of your housemates, Tony, doesn't seem to like you all that much. If you were to make use of the Ben Franklin effect, what can you do to increase Tony's liking for you?

Recall that participants in an experiment presented in the text were provided either large or small incentives to advocate the use and legalization of marijuana. Results of their experiment revealed that dissonance and attitude change occurred when

Derek likes to bully his little brother Matt. Their mother begins to give Derek the mild punishment of a stern look every time Derek hits Matt. This is sufficient to stop Derek's bullying, and in time, Derek stops bullying Matt even when his mother is not around. According to theories of insufficient punishment, why might this happen?

Who would be least likely to remember sound and well-founded arguments against smoking?

Recall that researchers conducted an experiment in which some participants were asked by the experimenter to return monetary compensation to him, while others were asked by the department secretary to return the money to a fund, and still others received no such request for the return of their compensation. Participants who were approached by the experimenter evaluated him better than did participants in the other two experimental conditions. These findings support the notion of

After reducing postdecision dissonance, people are more likely to rate the chosen and unchosen alternatives as

________ is to dissonance-induced attitude change as ________ is to no attitude change.

In a study presented in the text (Peterson, Haynes, & Olson, 2008), smokers were asked to create an antismoking video to be shown to high school students, invoking dissonance in the smokers. To alleviate this dissonance, what were these smokers more likely to do?

According to the authors of your text, after carefully making a decision, what is likely to happen?

Participants in an experiment conducted by Davis and Jones (1960) were instructed to provide hurtful feedback to another person (actually a confederate, of course). After providing such mean assessments of his performance, participants then evaluated him privately. After providing this criticism, these participants' evaluations of the confederate were more ________ because the ________.

The authors of your text report that lowballing works as a persuasion technique for three reasons. Which of the following is NOT one of those reasons?

The local police want to convince drivers to obey the fifty-five mile per hour speed limit on the highways. The police chief is convinced that doubling speeding fines is the answer. You've just read the section of Chapter 6 that deals with insufficient punishment. What would you say to him?