Participants in an experiment conducted by Davis and Jones (1960) were instructed to provide hurtful feedback to another person (actually a confederate, of course). After providing such mean assessments of his performance, participants then evaluated him privately. After providing this criticism, the participants' evaluations of the confederate were more __________ because the __________.
A) positive; participants regretted having hurt an innocent victim
B) negative; participants convinced themselves that the victim deserved it
C) negative; victim did not stand up for himself after the insults
D) positive; participants wanted to assuage their feelings of guilt

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

This phenomenon is known as cognitive dissonance, where individuals experience discomfort or psychological stress when their actions are inconsistent with their beliefs or values. In this case, the participants' actions of providing hurtful feedback were inconsistent with their belief that they were a decent and kind person. To reduce this discomfort, the participants convinced themselves that the victim deserved the negative feedback, leading to more negative evaluations.

Participants in an Experiment Conducted by Davis and Jones (1960)