User:Slayage/Cognitive dissonance

Forced Compliance
This procedure included seventy-one male students attending Stanford University. Students were asked to complete a series of repetitive, mundane tasks, then asked to convince a separate group of participants that the task was actually fun and exciting.

This is because they were not sufficiently compensated for the lie they were asked to tell, and because of this insufficiency, the participants convinced themselves to believe that what they were doing was actually exciting. This way, they felt better about telling the next group of participants that it was exciting because technically they weren't lying.

Personal Responsibility
A study conducted by Cooper and Worchel (1970) examined personal responsibility in regards to cognitive dissonance. The goal was to investigate responsibility in relation to foreseen consequences, and how this might cause dissonance. 124 female participants were asked to complete problem solving tasks while working with a partner. They had the option to either choose a partner who possessed negative traits, or they were assigned one. A portion of the participants were aware of the negative traits their partner possessed; however, the remaining participants were unaware. Cooper hypothesized that if the participants knew about their negative partner beforehand, they would have cognitive dissonance; however, he also believed that the participants would be inclined to attempt to like their partners in attempt to reduce this dissonance. The study shows that personal choice has the power to predict attitude changes.

Body Image and Health Intervention
There have been many different school based programs and education put in place as well as studies done over the years, to go along with body image and eating problems found within children and adoles­cents. Disordered eating behaviors can include binge eating episodes, excessive fasting, vomiting, and diet pills. National data from 2017 and 2018 highlights that since starting college approximately 50 percent of college students reported becoming increasingly concerned with their weight and body shape. Studies examining eating disorders (ED) symptoms in college students reported that only 20 percent of those with positive ED got help, and less than 10 percent were diagnosed with an ED. This Body Project (BP) is rooted in the theory of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance occurs when a discrepancy emerges between beliefs and actions. The theory is centered around the notion that if beliefs and actions are inconsistent, then the individual will create a change to align the beliefs and action. The BP uses cognitive dissonance to target ED, for example social pressure from peers or not being satisfied with your appearance, to bring awareness and for a healthy and positive change, thoughts toward body image.

Covid-19
The COVID-19 pandemic was an extreme public health crisis, with cases rising into the hundred millions and deaths at nearly four million worldwide, it was a crisis that needed to be handled very seriously. Reputable health organizations such as Lyu and Wehby studied the effects of wearing a face mask on the spread of COVID-19, and found evidence that suggests that COVID cases were reduced by 2%, averting nearly 200,000 cases, by the end of the next month. Despite this fact has being proven and encouraged by major health organizations, there was still a resistance to wearing the mask and keeping a safe distance away from others. When the COVID-19 vaccine was eventually released to the public, this only made the resistance stronger.

The Ad Council launched a very large campaign advertising for people to follow the health guidelines put in place by the CDC and WHO, and attempted to persuade people to eventually become vaccinated. After taking polls on public opinion about safety measures to prevent spreading the virus, it was shown that between 80% and 90% of adults in the United States agree with these safety procedures and vaccines being important. The cognitive dissonance comes about when polls were taken on public behavior. Despite the public opinion that wearing a mask, social distancing, and receiving the vaccine are all things the public should be doing, only 50% of responders admitted to actually doing these things all or even most of the time. People believe that partaking in preventative measures are important, but fail to follow through with actually doing them. In order to convince people to behave in line with their beliefs, it is important to remind people of a fact that they agree with, and then remind them of times in the past when they went against this. The hypocrisy paradigm is known for inconsistent cognitions being resolved through change in behavior. Data was collected by participants being asked to write statements supporting mask use and social distancing, which is something they agree with. They were then told to think about recent situations in which they failed to do this. The prediction was that the dissonance would be a motivating factor in getting people to be compliant with COVID-19 safety measures. After contacting participants one week later, they reported behaviors including social distancing and mask wearing.