SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY POSTLECTURE ASSIGNMENT # 7

EXERCISES TO MINIMIZE COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

PART 1: STRENGTHENING OF ATTITUDE

INSTRUCTIONS: Select a current social belief that you hold to be true. For example (don’t use this anymore), “I believe that DLSU
is the best school in the Philippines”. After selecting a social belief, find 5 credible sources online (text or video) that DISAGREES
with your belief. At this point this will create a dissonance (but relax, the exercise is not yet done). After finding 5
counterarguments against your social belief, for each of these 5, find a response to this counterargument that this time
SUPPORTS YOUR SOCIAL BELIEF. Fill in the table below to guide you:

Social belief: __________________________________________

COUNTERARGUMENTS Link COUNTERARGUMENTS AGAINST THIS Link

AGAINST YOUR SOCIAL BELIEF COUNTERARGUMENT OF YOUR SOCIAL BELIEF
#1 #1
#2 #2
#3 #3
#4 #4
#5 #5
 Bullet answers will do. After doing this, proceed to part 2 below
PART 2: DEALING WITH YOUR DISSONANCE

Instruction: Identify one cognitive dissonance you are experiencing right now. Remember dissonance happens when: 1.) You
have two opposing beliefs which makes you “torn” which one to believe. 2.) Your behavior is not in line with your belief. Just
pick one of these. After selecting which one, minimize this dissonance that you are feeling.

If you have chosen # 1 (two opposing beleifs): Do a hard research to finally settle which of the opposing beliefs would you believe
in. I leave it to you how you will do this hard research. Again, the goal is to choose one between the 2 opposing beliefs that you
have. Fill in the table below for this:

Identify the 2 opposing beliefs you have that create dissonance: ___________________________________________

After your “hard research”, which one of the 2 did you decide to be true? (identify here). Identify below 5 crucial
“discoveries”/”details” you found out that made you decide this is the belief to accept:

Detail # 1:
Detail # 2:
Detail # 3:
Detail # 4:
Detail # 5:

Note: No need to explain. Keywords/phrases/short sentences will do.

If you have chosen # 2 (Misaligned Attitude and Behavior), decide which one would you adjust: Attitude or behavior? (Example:
“You believe that smoking is bad but you smoke”)…Would you a.) Adjust attitude: Convince yourself that smoking is not bad or
b.) Adjust behavior: Stop smoking. Regardless what you will do (a or b), shortly explain/justify your choice.

I will do letter a because _____________________________

I will do letter b because _____________________________