This is a sequence of animations broken into five parts on the topic of Cognitive Dissonance.
  1. Part 1 of 5:
  2. The on-screen text says "Leon Festinger’s dissonance theory assumes that attitude change is often driven by inconsistency among one’s attitudes. According to Festinger, when related attitudes or beliefs contradict each other they create cognitive dissonance, which is accompanied by an unpleasant state of tension. This tension motivates people to reduce their dissonance, usually by altering their attitudes."
  3. Part 2 of 5:
  4. The on-screen text says "Consider a classic 1959 study by Festinger and Carlsmith in which subjects were coaxed into helping an experimenter by lying to another subject about whether a dull task they just worked on was interesting. In this study, the subjects’ contradictory cognitions were “The task was really dull” and “I told someone the task was interesting.”"
  5. Part 3 of 5:
  6. The on-screen text says "Here is how the experiment worked. Some subjects received a token payment of $1 for their effort, while others received a more substantial payment of $20, which would be worth about $120 today, in light of inflation. Later, a second experimenter inquired about the participants’ true feelings regarding the dull experimental task."
  7. Part 4 of 5:
  8. The on-screen text says "This diagram provides an overview of the experimental design. Both common sense and learning theory would predict that the subjects who received the greater reward should come to like the task more. However, the findings revealed that the participants who were paid $1 exhibited a more favorable attitude toward the dull task."
  9. Part 5 of 5:
  10. The on-screen text says "According to Festinger, the participants who were well-paid for lying had an obvious reason for behaving inconsistently with their true attitudes, so these subjects experienced low dissonance and little need for attitude change. In contrast, the participants who got a token payment had no justification for their lie and experienced high dissonance. To reduce their dissonance, they persuaded themselves that the task was more interesting than they had originally thought."
  11. End of animated sequence.