Opening Skinner's Box
Lauren Slater
Chapter 5: Quieting the Mind
The Experiments of Leon Festinger
Summary: In this chapter, Slater presents some of the experiments and main concepts introduced by Leon Festinger. She focuses on his experiments about Cognitive Dissonance, and how individuals are willing to adjust their own beliefs for those that better fit or justify one's behavior. In a major part of the essay, Slater discusses her own interactions with a woman that fits the characteristics studied by Festinger and tries to understand if in reality she was interacting with a person reacting to cognitive dissonance.
Discussion: Lying for one dollar or lying for 20? Interesting experiment. Even though I don't know much about psychology, it makes sense that someone who lied for twenty dollars would accept it, but maybe those that lied for only one were ashamed of themselves and tried to justify it. In the Design of Everyday Things, Norman ascertains that humans are rational being, that we want an explanation for everything. I can relate this idea to the cognitive dissonance. If we don't have an explanation for something, we will try to adjust our ideas and beliefs to where they match, and maybe trying to give an explanation of something is what changes one's beliefs.
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