E M I LY S L E Z A K M O R G A N W I L B A N K S

THE ORIGINS OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE:

EVIDENCE FROM CHILDREN AND MONKEYS

INTRODUCTION

• Cognitive Dissonance:• “a psychological state in which an individual’s

cognitions – beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors – are at odds”• Interpreted as a negative feeling• Motivated to resolve the contradiction

• Still up for debate: developmental or evolutionary basis?

PAST STUDIES

• Aronson & Carlsmith (1963) - Children • Lewis (1964) - Rats• Friedrich & Zentall (2004) - Birds

BASIC METHODS

• Combined Comparative-Developmental Approach• Free-Choice Paradigm• Re-rating vs. Two Phase

• Hypothesis:• If dissonance is experienced in phase one, then

attitude towards unchosen item will change in phase two

CHILD STUDY METHODS• Subjects:• Thirty 4-year-olds• Tested in pre-schools or in the laboratory

• Procedure• Assessed child’s preference for stickers with the

smiley-face rating scale • Children competency for scale tested (See any

issues with this scale?)

CHILD STUDY METHODS

• Procedure continued• Experimenter identified at least two triads of

stickers the child liked equally• Each sticker within a triad was labeled A, B, or C• Phase one: choice between A & B• Phase two: choice between unchosen option

in phase one and C• Choice vs. No choice conditions• Using at least two triads per child, the data was

averaged across trials

CAPUCHIN STUDY METHODS• Subjects: • Six Capuchin Monkeys• Four adults and two adolescents (one subject

group vs. two?)• Procedure• Experimenter determined differential

preference for M&Ms based on retrieval time• Tested 20 times in two experimental sessions

CAPUCHIN STUDY METHODS

• Procedure continued• Equally preferred triads of M&M colors were

identified• Choice and no choice conditions

RESULTS

• Children Study• “Children in the choice condition were more likely

to prefer option C (63.0%) than were children in the no-choice condition (47.2%)”• evidence of resolving cognitive dissonance

• Capuchin Study• “The monkeys chose option C more in the choice

condition (60.0%) than in the no-choice condition (38.3%)”

• The monkeys chose the unreceived option over the novel option more often in the no-choice condition

DISCUSSION • Evidence for Cognitive Dissonance in human

adults and children as well as non-human primates• Current study isolates reason for attitude

change to be attributed to cognitive dissonance• The only difference being an intentional choice

• Evidence for innate over developmental• Since 4-year-olds have some experience with

cognitive dissonance, further studies with infants would be preferred

DISCUSSION

• Core-knowledge mechanism • Possibly core aspects of cognition give rise to

cognitive dissonance• Automatic response • Either mechanistically simpler than thought or

assume less cognitively sophisticated individuals (children and monkeys) are more complex

EGAN, BLOOM, SANTOS (2010)• Follow-up Study• Introduction of blind choice to eliminate prior

preferences too fine-grained for measurement • Results• Both children and monkeys chose the third

object, consistent with the original study• Indicating that they devalued the rejected object• Pattern did not occur when the subjects did not

have a choice• Study gives evidence that there was not a prior

preference, but that the choice itself induced preference