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Chapter 6
The Need to Justify
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Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
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Prepared By
Fred W. Whitford
Montana State University
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Chapter Outline
I. Maintaining a Stable, Positive
Self-Image
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive SelfImage
One of the most powerful
determinants of human behavior is
the need to preserve a stable,
positive self-concept.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive SelfImage
• The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance
Leon Festinger originated the concept of
cognitive dissonance, defining it as
inconsistency between two thoughts.
Cognitive dissonance may arise when a
person engages in an act that is
discrepant from one’s self-concept.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive SelfImage
• The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive dissonance is the feeling of
discomfort caused by information that is
discrepant from your customary, typically
positive, self-concept. Experiencing
dissonance motivates an attempt to
reduce it.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive
Self-Image
• The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive SelfImage
• Rational Behavior Versus
Rationalizing Behavior
The need to reduce dissonance and
maintain self-esteem produces thinking
that is rationalizing rather than rational.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive
Self-Image
• Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive SelfImage
• Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
Postdecision dissonance is aroused after
we make any important decision; it is
reduced by enhancing the attractiveness of
the chosen alternative and devaluating the
rejected alternative.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive SelfImage
• Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
One way to engage in postdecision
dissonance reduction is to proselytize,
recommending your decision/behavior to
others.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive SelfImage
• Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
The more permanent a decision, the greater
the need to reduce dissonance after making
it. Feeling that one’s decision is irrevocable
may lead to falling prey to a sales technique
called lowballing. Lowballing makes the
customer feel compelled to pay a higher
price for an item after first agreeing to pay a
much lower price.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive SelfImage
• Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
Dissonance reduction following a difficult
moral decision can cause people to behave
either more or less ethically in the future,
because people’s attitudes will polarize in
the attempt to justify the ethical choice they
made.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive SelfImage
• Justify Your Effort
What happens when a person voluntarily
works hard and the goal doesn’t seem
worth it after all? People are unlikely to
change their self-concept to believe they
were unskilled or foolish; instead they
change their attitude towards the goal and
see it positively. This is called the
justification of Aronson
effort.
Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive SelfImage
• Justify Your Effort
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive SelfImage
• The Psychology of Insufficient
Justification
When people attempt to reduce their dissonance by
changing something about themselves, for example
their attitudes, they are using internal justification.
When people attempt to explain their dissonant
behaviors by focusing on reasons that reside outside
of themselves, for example being paid a large sum of
money, they are using external justification.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive SelfImage
• The Psychology of Insufficient
Justification
Counterattitudinal advocacy is the process by which
people are induced to state publicly an attitude that
runs counter to their own attitude. If there is no
external justification for counterattitudinal advocacy,
a person’s attitude may change in accordance with
the view that was expressed publicly.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive SelfImage
• Counterattitudinal Advocacy, Race
Relations, and Preventing AIDS
Harsh punishments teach us to try to avoid
getting caught, and thus require constant
vigilance to be effective. In contrast,
insufficient punishment induces dissonance
about why one is not engaging in the
behavior, and inspires dissonance reduction
by devaluing the forbidden activity or object.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive SelfImage
• Counterattitudinal Advocacy, Race
Relations, and Preventing AIDS
When attitude change occurs due to
insufficient reward or punishment, it
becomes very enduring. Both insufficient
punishment and insufficient justification
lead to self-persuasion, a long-term form of
attitude change that results from attempts
at self-justification.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive
Self-Image
• Counterattitudinal Advocacy, Race
Relations, and Preventing AIDS
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive SelfImage
• Counterattitudinal Advocacy, Race
Relations, and Preventing AIDS
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive SelfImage
• Counterattitudinal Advocacy, Race
Relations, and Preventing AIDS
Insufficient external justification is
justification that is sufficient to produce the
behavior, but insufficient for people to
believe that they were “forced” through
external justifications to do it.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive SelfImage
• Good and Bad Deeds
Dissonance theory and folk wisdom suggest
that we like people not for the favors they
have done us but for the favors we have
done for them.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive SelfImage
• Good and Bad Deeds
If we harm someone, this induces
dissonance between our actions and our
self-concepts as decent people; to resolve
this dissonance, we may derogate or
dehumanize our victims.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Maintaining a Stable, Positive SelfImage
• Good and Bad Deeds
We are more likely to derogate people we
have harmed if they are innocent victims.
Derogating victims by dehumanizing them
may lead to a continuation or escalation of
violence against them.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Chapter Outline
II. Variations on the Theme of
Self-Justification
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Variations on the Theme of SelfJustification
The basic premise of cognitive
dissonance theory is that people
have a fundamental need to maintain
a stable and positive sense of self.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Variations on the Theme of SelfJustification
• Self-Discrepancy Theory
Self-discrepancy theory holds that people
are motivated to maintain a sense of
consistency among their beliefs and
perceptions of themselves, and become
distressed when there is a discrepancy
between the “actual self” and an “ideal” or
“ought” self. Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Variations on the Theme of SelfJustification
• Maintaining our Self-Image
Self-evaluation maintenance theory holds
that one’s self-concept can be threatened
by another individual’s behavior, and that
the level of threat is determined by both
the closeness of the other individual and
the personal relevance of the behavior.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Variations on the Theme of SelfJustification
• Maintaining our Self-Image
Dissonance arising when a friend
outperforms oneself in a cherished domain
can be resolved by (1) distancing oneself
from the friend; (2) changing how relevant
the domain is to one’s self-definition; or (3)
improving one’s performance to outshine
the friend’s performance.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Variations on the Theme of SelfJustification
• Self-Affirmation Theory
Self-affirmation theory suggests that
people will reduce the impact of a
dissonance arousing threat to their selfconcept by focusing on and affirming their
competence on some dimension unrelated
to the threat.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Chapter Outline
III. Why Would Anyone Want to
Maintain a Poor Self-Image?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Why Would Anyone Want to
Maintain a Poor Self-Image?
• Confirming Our Self-Concept or
Enhancing It?
Self-verification theory is a theory
suggesting that people have a need to seek
confirmation of their self-concept, whether
the self-concept is positive or negative.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Chapter Outline
IV. Some Final Thoughts on
Dissonance: Learning from our
Mistakes
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
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Some Final Thoughts on Dissonance
The rationalization trap is the
potential for dissonance reduction to
produce a succession of selfjustifications that can ultimately
result in a chain of unintelligent or
immoral actions.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Chapter Outline
V. Heaven’s Gate Revisited
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Heaven’s Gate Revisited
Making an important decision and
investing heavily in that decision can
evoke a high degree of cognitive
dissonance and a strong need to
justify behavior. One of the most
powerful forces influencing the
members of the Heaven’s Gate cult
was the great amount of cognitive
dissonance they experienced.
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
What are conditions that may
result in cognitive dissonance?
Why does cognitive dissonance
occur?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
What is the relationship between
making important decisions and
experiencing dissonance? What
happens to attitudes toward the
chosen alternative and the one
that is not chosen?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
Why is lowballing an effective
persuasion technique? How
does dissonance reduction after
a moral decision affect people’s
tendency to behave ethically or
unethically in the future?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
What is the relationship between
the justification of effort and
dissonance reduction?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
Why can insufficient justification
result in dissonance? What are
the consequences of reducing
dissonance through external
justification compared to internal
justification?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
What are the effects of insufficient
punishment on the judgments of
an object or entity? What are the
effects of mild versus severe
threats on the level of
dissonance experienced?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
Why is self-persuasion a longlasting form of attitudinal
change?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
What are the consequences of
doing something unpleasant for
a friend compared to doing
something unpleasant for
someone who is disliked? What
are the effects of doing a favor
for someone on how much this
person is liked?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
What does self-discrepancy theory
explain? How is dissonance
reduced according to this
theory?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
What is self-completion theory?
How is dissonance reduced
according to this theory?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
What is self-evaluation
maintenance theory? What are
two necessary factors for the
occurrence of dissonance
according to this theory? How
does this theory explain why
people may help strangers more
than they help their friends?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
What causes dissonance
according to self-affirmation
theory? How is dissonance
reduced according to this
theory?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
When do people prefer selfverification more than selfenhancement?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Study Questions
What is a rationalization trap and
how does one develop? How can
this trap be avoided? What can
other cultures teach us about
avoiding this trap?
Aronson Social Psychology, 5/e
Copyright © 2005 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.