title: Do I Know What I'm Doing? Cognitive Dissonance and Action Identification Theory.
abstract: Our main purpose was to explore hypotheses derived from the Identification of Action Theory in a particular situation that is, a dissonant situation. Thus, we varied the identification (low versus high-level) of a problematic behavior (to stop speaking for 24 hours) in the forced compliance paradigm. Two modes of dissonance reduction were presented: cognitive rationalization (classical attitude-change) and behavioral rationalization (target behavior: to stop speaking for 48 hours). As predicted, the results showed that high-level identity of action leads to cognitive rationalization whereas low-level identity leads to behavioural rationalization. Thus, participants identifying the problematic behavior at a low-level were more inclined to accept the target behavior, compared with participants identifying their problematic behavior at a higher-level. These results are of particular interest for understanding the extent to which the understanding of the discrepant act interferes with the cognitive processes of dissonance reduction.
authors.affiliation: Université de Lorraine (France).
authors.forename: Valérie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fointiat
authors.affiliation: Université de Lorraine (France).
authors.forename: Audrey
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pelt
mesh_terms: D001290:Attitude; D001519:Behavior; D003071:Cognition; D003073:Cognitive Dissonance; D006801:Humans; D011582:Psychological Theory
keywords: action identification; attitude change; behavioral rationalization; cognitive dissonance; forced compliance