Hypocrisy can be considered as a dissonance state expressed as a combination of two factors: commitment (advocating a pronormative position) and mindfulness (being aware of past transgressions). Such inconsistency between what people advocate and their past behaviors is usually reduced by modifying behaviors or behavioral intentions in line with normative advocacy. The aim of this study is to examine the conditions under which this set of behaviors (apparent hypocrisy) can occur. Specifically, the salience of the transgressions was manipulated: participants were led to recall 1 or 4 transgressions varying in severity (serious vs harmless). As expected, recalling 4 transgressions led to greater behavioral change than recalling only 1 transgression. Surprisingly, recalling 4 harmless transgressions induced greater behavioral change than recalling 4 serious transgressions.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AronsonF., (1968) Dissonance theory: progress and problems. In AbelsonR.McGuireW.NewcombT.RosenbergM.TannenbaumP. (Eds.). Theorien of cognitive consistency a sourcebook. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally. Pp. 5–27.
2.
AronsonE. (1992) The return of the repressed: dissonance theory makes a comeback. Psychological Inquiry, 3, 303–311.
3.
AronsonE. (1999) Dissonance, hypocrisy, and the self concept. In Harmon-JonesEMillsJ. (Eds.), Cognitive dissonance progress on a pivotal theory in social psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Assn.
4.
AronsonE.FriedC.StoneJ. (1991) Overcoming denial and increasing the intention to use condoms through the induction of hypocrisy. American Journal of Public Health, 81, 1636–1638.
5.
BardenJ.RuckerD. D.PettyR. F., (2005) “Saying one thing and doing another”: examining the impact of event order on hypocrisy judgments of others. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 1463–1474.
6.
BeauvoisJ. L.JouleR. V. (1996) A radical dissonance theory. London: Taylor & Francis.
7.
BeauvoisJ. L.JouleR. V. (1999) A radical point of view on dissonance theory. In Harmon-JonesE.MillsJ. (Eds.), Cognitive dissonance: progress in a pivotal theory in social psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Assn.
8.
BemD. (1967) Self-perception theory. In BerkowitzL. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Pp. 1–62.
9.
BrehmJ. W. (1966) A theory of psychological reactance. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
10.
CooperJ.FazioR. H. (1984) A new look at dissonance theory. In BerkowitzL. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology. Hillsdale. NJ: Erlbaum. Pp. 229–262.
11.
DickersonC. A.ThibodeauR.AronsonE.MillerD. (1992) Using cognitive dissonance to encourage water conservation. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 22, 841–854.
12.
ElliotA.DevineP. (1994) On the motivational nature of cognitive dissonance: dissonance as psychological discomfort. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 382–394.
13.
FestingerL. (1957) A theory of cognitive dissonance. Evanston, IL: Row Peterson.
14.
FestincerL.CarlsmithJ. M. (1959) Cognitive consequences of forced compliance. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. 58. 203–211.
15.
FointiatV.GrosbrasJ. M. (2007) Dire une chose et en faire une autre: de la déclaration de liberté dans le paradigme de l'hypocrisie induite. Psychologie Française. 54, 445–458.
16.
FriedC. (1998) Hypocrisy and identification with transgressions: a case of undetected dissonance. Basic and Applied Social Psychology. 20, 145–154.
17.
FriedC.AronsonE. (1995) Hypocrisy, misattribution, and dissonance reduction. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 21. 925–933.
18.
GibbonsF. X. (1990) Self-attention and behavior: a review and theoretical update. In ZannaM. P. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology. Hillsdale. NJ: Erlbaum. Pp. 249–303.
19.
Harmon-JonesE.MillsJ. (Eds.) (1999) Cognitive dissonance: progress on a pivotal theory in social psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Assn.
20.
O'KeefeD. (2002) Persuasion: theory and research. London: Sage.
21.
SimonL.GreenbergJ.BrehmJ. (1995) Trivialization: the forgotten mode of dissonance reduction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 68, 247–260.
22.
Son HingL.LiW.ZannaM. P. (2002) Inducing hypocrisy to reduce prejudicial responses among aversive racists. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 38. 71–78.
23.
StoneJ.AronsonE.CrainA. L.WinslowM. P.FriedC. (1994) Inducing hypocrisy as a means of encouraging young adults to use condoms. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 116–128.
24.
StoneWeigandA. W.CooperJ.AronsonE. (1997) When exemplification fails: hypocrisy and the motive for self-integrity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 54–65.
25.
ZannaM. R.CooperJ. (1974) Dissonance and the pill: an attribution approach to studying the arousal properties of dissonance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 29, 703–709.
26.
ZimbardoP. G.WeisenbergM.FirestoneI.LevyB. (1965) Communicator effectiveness in producing public conformity and private attitude change. Journal of Personality, 33, 233–255.
