Download Cognitive Dissonance within Political Parties

Cognitive Dissonance and Value
Salience within Political Parties
Why politicians continue to
support failed public policy
Cognitive Dissonance and Value
Salience within Political Parties
• Statement of the Problem and Proposition
• Concepts
• Critical Analysis
• Considerations
Statement of the Problem and
Hypothesis
• Why do politicians continue to support failed
public policy.
• Failed public policy= Public policy which has not been
enacted, has been enacted yet is failing, or lacks public
support
• Proposition- Politicians are more likely to support
failed public policy when they possess high
levels of value salience and engage in cognitive
dissonance.
Concepts- Value Salience
• Homans and value
• Value as a form of symbolic mediation
• Values, when routinized and reified, become generalized
• Generalized values serve as structural determinates of self
• Kuhn’s Role Salience applied to generalized values
• Hence, value salience
Concepts- Cognitive Dissonance
• Relationships between cognitions can
either be consistent (consonant) or
inconsistent (dissonant)
• Sufficient and Insufficient Justification
• Cognitive Consistency- Negative drive
state in which people attempt to maintain
consonance and eliminate dissonance,
between cognitions.
Concepts- Cognitive Dissonance
Cont’d
• Cognitive Dissonance- Reduction of dissonance
•
between two inconsistent cognitions (actions,
beliefs or opinions).
Three methods
– Change one of the cognitions to regain consistency
with the other.
– Forget or discount the importance or one of the
cognitions.
– Acquire new cognitions which add consonance to the
original relationship
Concepts- Social Groups
• Social Group- A social group is defined as the emergence
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of three or more individuals into a pattern of goal
orientation, characterized by an interrelationship of
statuses and awareness of membership
Primary Group- cohesiveness and interpersonality.
Informal bonds and rules
Secondary Group- Goal oriented and instrumentality.
Formal bonds and rules.
Distinction is not a function of size.
– Reference groups and small groups within a corporation.
Critical Analysis
• Politicians exist within political parties.
• Political parties will often morph between primary and
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secondary groups
Most politicians possess high levels of value salience
When policies are not enacted, dissonance develops.
Changing cognitions is not an option due to the presence
within a group and value salience. These factors are not
present in Festingers experiment.
Critical Analysis Cont’d
• When Prophecies Fail
• Attitudes Shifts within The John Birch Society
• Dissonance Reduction Technique- Introduce new
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cognitions which create consonance in the
original relationship
Group manifests more ideological fervor to
reaffirm their own beliefs and bring in new
members. Abandons goal oriented behavior.
Group shifts from secondary to primary
Critical Analysis Cont’d
• Goals are not abandoned, rather rhetorical
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emphasis is shifted from attainment to
justification
“Why speech” replaces “how speech”
When the consonance from this shift to primary
group status is sufficient to bring the original
relationship back into consistency, the political
party will once again shift to secondary group
status and pursue goal oriented behavior.
Considerations- Group Think
• The underlying assumption of this analysis is that groups
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foster conformity.
Group think- Members of a group will collectively
rationalize their actions and as a result generate an
illusion of morality. This illusion justifies the use of
negative stereotyping of dissenters, which in turn
creates a pressure towards conformity and a generation
of self-censorship. This self-censoring of opinion leads to
an illusion of unanimity that further validates the actions.
Stronger in primary groups? Hence, the shift to primary
status being such an effective dissonance reduction
technique.
Considerations- Alternative
Proposition: Sufficient Justification?
• Might a politician explain away this dissonance
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by adding the consonant cognition that the
public doesn’t fully understand what he is
saying, hence continuing the goal oriented
behavior? i.e. liberal media
If so, is sufficient justification= political capital?
Might this be an intermediate step to the
dissonant reduction technique described in the
analysis?
Considerations- Methodological
Implications
• Content Analysis
• Examine the rhetoric of politicians for
“how speech” and “why speech.”
• See how it corresponds to popularity
ratings
Concluding Thoughts
• Academic turf wars
• Does the check and balance nature of our
political institutions foster more divisive
ideological debates?
• What makes a successful politician
• Low value salience- Clinton
• High value salience- FDR and Reagan