Received: 19 June 2019 | Revised: 4 October 2019 | Accepted: 11 October 2019

DOI: 10.1111/jasp.12639

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Helping the “couch potato”: A cognitive dissonance approach to

increasing exercise in the elderly

Joel Cooper | Lauren A. Feldman

Department of Psychology, Princeton

University, Princeton, NJ, USA
Correspondence
Lauren A. Feldman, Department of
Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton,
NJ 08540, USA.
Email: laurenfeldman@princeton.edu
Abstract
In this manuscript, we present the results of the research that employs a technique
inspired by the cognitive dissonance theory to increase older adults’ intentions to
exercise. The failure to engage in physical activity is at the root of many psycho‐
logical and physical ailments, from depression to diabetes. This is especially true of
older adults for whom sedentary behavior is increasingly common. The current work
reports the results of an experiment and a preliminary study that adopted the hypoc‐
risy paradigm of dissonance to motivate increased behavioral intentions to exercise.
Elderly participants volunteered to generate strong arguments in favor of engaging in
physical exercise. As predicted by the dissonance theory, when urged to recall times
in the past in which they had chosen not to exercise, participants increased their in‐
tention to exercise in the future and became more positive about the importance of
exercise in their lives. Participants who only advocated for greater exercise but were
not made aware of their past transgressions did not show increases in behavioral
intentions. The results were interpreted as evidence for the effectiveness of a social
psychological theory on a significant social problem.

1 | I NTRO D U C TI O N as well as psychological disorders such as depression (de Wit, van

From its inception, social psychological research has entertained the
dual mission of advancing theory about human behavior and using
theory as a lens through which social problems could be understood
and influenced. The current work adopts and extends the theory
of cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957) to a problem of social and
personal significance: The increased prevalence of physical and
mental illness caused by the lack of physical activity and exercise. In
this research, we take the position that cognitive dissonance can be
brought to bear to create a theoretically based intervention at the
service of increasing people's motivation and intention to get off the
couch and increase their level of physical activity.
Sedentary behavior is increasingly acknowledged as a precursor
to a wide array of physical and mental health concerns. Research
has been accumulating that insufficient physical activity is associ‐
ated with increased risk of chronic physical diseases like diabetes
and cancer (Fried, 2000; Thorp, Owen, Neuhaus, & Dunstan, 2011)
Straten, Lamers, Cuijpers, & Penninx, 2011). The risk created by
physical inactivity occurs at every adult age group, but is especially
troublesome as people age (Evenson, Buchner, & Morland, 2012).
Research shows that sedentary behavior increases with age and
accelerates chronic aspects of age‐related declines (Booth, Laye,
& Roberts, 2011; Evenson et al., 2012). Fewer than 35% of adults
aged 65–75 meet the age‐appropriate physical activity guidelines of
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and fewer than
18% of adults 75 years of age and older do so (White, Wójcicki, &
McAuley, 2012).
The issue addressed in the current study is to derive and test a
theoretically based intervention to increase physical activity in an
elderly population. Despite the positive physical and mental health
benefits of physical activity, elderly adults are remarkably inactive.
For those without physical impediments to exercise, psychological
barriers exist that reduce their motivation. Some of these are based
on individual differences such as low self‐esteem or diminished

J Appl Soc Psychol. 2020;50:33–40. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jasp

© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. | 33

34 | COOPER and FELDMAN
levels of self‐efficacy (Bandura, 1997, 2004; McAuley, Lox, &
Duncan, 1993; White et al., 2012). A relatively small literature has
explored psychological approaches to increase exercise in adult and
elderly populations. For example, researchers have found that adults
over the age of 65 who exercised with a group and perceived high
task and social cohesion showed improved attitudes and intentions
to exercise (Estabrooks & Carron, 1999); other research on action
planning and exercise has shown that telephone‐delivered “booster
sessions” focusing on positive exercise experiences and action plan
adherence led to improved exercise maintenance in individuals in
physical rehabilitation (Fleig, Pomp, Schwarzer, & Lippke, 2013; see
also Bélanger‐Gravel, Godin, & Amireault, 2013).
While promising, many of these interventions require a high time
commitment or some such barrier to entry (i.e., several follow‐up
sessions, or the consistent presence of a social group). Given the low
cost and high efficiency of cognitive dissonance procedures, our goal
in this research is to adopt a situationally based dissonance interven‐
tion that bolsters older adults’ motivation and intention to engage in
the physical activity.
1.1 | Cognitive dissonance as intervention
Cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957) is a general motivational ap‐
proach that has been studied for several decades (Cooper, 2007;
Harmon‐Jones, Amodio, & Harmon‐Jones, 2009). In the labora‐
tory, it has typically been invoked as a theory of attitude change,
but its general motivational properties make it well suited to de‐
rive techniques that can lead to change in important health‐related
behaviors.
When people realize that they have cognitions that are incom‐
patible with each other, cognitive dissonance ensues. The motiva‐
tion to reduce dissonance leads to a change in the cognition that is
most readily changeable. Beginning with Festinger and Carlsmith's
(1959) classic experiment, myriad research studies have shown that
people who make public statements in contrast to their attitudes
reduce their dissonance by changing their attitudes to make them
more compatible with their behavior. Similarly, people who expend
unpleasant effort to reach a goal psychologically elevate the attrac‐
tiveness of the goal (Aronson & Mills, 1959); people who make a
difficult choice between two alternatives subsequently distort the
value of the alternatives to justify their choice (Brehm, 1956) and
people who refrain from a pleasant activity for barely sufficient jus‐
tification resort to derogating the activity as a way of dealing with
their dissonance (Aronson & Carlsmith, 1963).
Prior research has shown that dissonance can motivate peo‐
ple to take action that benefits their physical and mental health.
Axsom (1989) demonstrated that dissonance motivated university
students to overcome their anxiety about public speaking. Cooper
(1980) showed that dissonance helped people overcome phobias
toward snakes. In a meta‐analytic review, Stice and Shaw (2004)
showed that dissonance interventions were effective at help‐
ing people with a goal of weight loss in a variety of weight loss
programs.
15591816, 2020, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jasp.12639 by Radboud University Nijmegen, Wiley Online Library on [09/01/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
1.2 | Dissonance and physical exercise
In a typical induced compliance experiment, people are induced
to change their attitudes by advocating for a position with which
they disagree. The dilemma for applying the well‐established in‐
duced compliance procedure to health research is that advocating
for healthy life choices is generally proattitudinal for most people
(Azdia, Girandola, & Andraud, 2002). The challenge is increasing
people's motivation to take action consistent with their beliefs. For
example, teens are in favor of taking precautions to prevent HIV/
AIDs but often act in ways that put themselves at risk (Becker &
Joseph, 1988; Beckman, Harvey, & Tiersky, 2010). People who seek
to change their diet believe that doing so is important, but many
have difficulty motivating themselves to take the steps needed to
change their eating habits. Similarly, people of all ages believe that
physical exercise is valuable but nonetheless remain sedentary. The
term “couch potato” vividly invokes the cultural truism that physical
activity is preferred to indolence. This is especially true of the elderly
who become increasingly sedentary relative to their capacity to be
active (Evenson et al., 2012).
The central question in this research is whether we can use dis‐
sonance to motivate the elderly to increase their intention to en‐
gage in the physical activity. Stone, Aronson and their colleagues
(Aronson, 1999; Focella, Stone, Fernandez, Cooper, & Hogg, 2016;
Fried & Aronson, 1995; Stone, Aronson, Crain, Winslow, & Fried,
1994) have shown that people experience cognitive dissonance
when they are made aware of situations in their past in which they
have acted inconsistently with their current attitudes. The apparent
hypocrisy between people's stated attitudes and their past behav‐
ior leads to motivation to reduce the inconsistency (see Priolo et al.,
2019, for a meta‐analytic review). We propose that the elderly can
become more motivated to engage in the physical activity if they are
confronted with the inconsistency between their positive attitudes
toward the physical activity and their lack of activity in the recent
past.
The study by Stone et al. (1994) is particularly relevant to the
current goal. Their project was designed to show the impact of cog‐
nitive dissonance in promoting greater safe‐sex behaviors among
university students. Male university students were recruited to
create what they believed were public service announcements that
would be used in local high schools to promote the use of condoms.
The students had positive attitudes toward the use of condoms and
believed that they should always be used during sex. After making
their attitude‐consistent speech about always using condoms, par‐
ticipants in the key dissonance arousing condition were asked to re‐
member times that they had engaged in sex without a condom. The
juxtaposition of recalling instances discrepant with the attitude‐con‐
sistent speech aroused dissonance. Later, when they were given an
opportunity to purchase condoms at a reduced cost, students in the
dissonance conditions purchased significantly more condoms than
participants in any of the various control conditions.
In a replication and extension of this study, Stone, Wiegand,
Cooper, and Aronson (1997) provided research participants with

COOPER and FELDMAN
other means of reducing their dissonance rather than committing
to using condoms. They found that when dissonance was aroused
by the perception of inconsistency between past behavior and cur‐
rent attitudes, participants preferred to reduce their dissonance in
as direct a manner as possible, that is, committing to using condoms.
Even when there were easier alternatives that might have alleviated
their dissonance, the students preferred to reduce their dissonance
by changing their safe sex behaviors.
We chose to apply the theoretical concept of hypocrisy to mo‐
tivate the exercise activity in the elderly because older adults are at
increased risk of physical and mental decline associated with inac‐
tivity. Although elderly populations have been generally overlooked
in dissonance research, recent work has shown that the elderly
are as susceptible to the effects of induced compliance as younger
adults (Cooper & Feldman, 2019). We believe that the induction of
hypocrisy can be similarly successful with older adults and will lead
to greater motivation to increase their magnitude of the physical
activity.
1.3 | Preliminary research
A preliminary study gave us confidence in the approach we devel‐
oped. We asked volunteers at a Jewish Community Center to help
us with creating a public service pamphlet on the benefits of exer‐
cise. Forty‐four participants (28 women) between the ages of 60
and 92 were recruited (M = 75.61, SD = 9.29). We utilized a stand‐
ard hypocrisy paradigm that induced hypocrisy through commit‐
ment to their prohealth attitude toward physical exercise, as well
as the mindful awareness that their past behavior had not always
been consistent with this commitment. To establish commitment,
participants were asked to write a statement advocating for the
health benefits of physical exercise, ostensibly to be compiled and
distributed as motivation to another group of older adults trying
to improve their health through exercise. The participants in the
hypocrisy condition were then presented with a list of reasons
that one could potentially give for not having exercised enough
and were asked to indicate the reasons that applied to them, thus
establishing awareness about times in which they hadn't exer‐
cised enough. In the advocacy‐only control condition, participants
skipped this part of the procedure and immediately continued to
the dependent measures; that is, they were only asked to write
the statement, but did not recall past instances in which they had
the opportunity to exercise but failed to do so. At the conclusion
of the study, participants were asked about their attitudes related
to exercise. Although the small number of participants limited the
generalizability of the results, the data showed that participants
who went through the hypocrisy induction rated the physical activ‐
ity as more important than participants who did not, t(42) = 2.56,
p = .014, Cohen's d = 0.77.
Encouraged by the preliminary data, we conducted a new study to
examine the impact of hypocrisy‐induced dissonance on older adults'
attitudes and behavioral intentions toward exercise. We conducted
the main study in the community in which participants lived. We added
15591816, 2020, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jasp.12639 by Radboud University Nijmegen, Wiley Online Library on [09/01/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
| 35
a no‐treatment control condition to the research design, allowing us to
test whether there is a positive impact of having people advocate their
prohealth position in the absence of the hypocrisy manipulation. We
predict that being made aware of the times that they failed to exercise
following their advocacy of exercise (hypocrisy condition) will increase
participants’ attitudes toward exercise, as well as their behavioral in‐
tentions to exercise in the future, more so than those who only advo‐
cate in favor of exercise (advocacy‐only condition) or a no treatment
group (control condition).
2 | M E TH O D
2.1 | Participants
We conducted our research with a special population, recruiting
63 healthy residents of an “over‐55” community in central New
Jersey who volunteered for the study.1 They were contacted by a
female experimenter who was a resident of the community.
Inclusion criteria included being older than 65 years of age and
with the ability to understand the instructions. The experimenter
explained that she was conducting research on physical exercise
for a research group at Princeton University and asked if they
would be willing to volunteer. The mean age of the participants
was 71.4 (SD = 6.7) with a range of 65–85. Two‐thirds were female.
All of the participants who volunteered for the study completed
the questionnaires and none needed to be excluded for the final
analyses. Neither the age nor gender distribution varied by experi‐
mental condition.
2.2 | Procedure
The participants were tested individually in public areas within their
community. The experimenter told participants that the researchers
at Princeton were making a booklet to convince seniors about the im‐
portance of the physical activity. Rather than merely using facts and
statistics related to exercise, the researchers wanted a booklet that
contained arguments written by seniors for seniors extolling the ben‐
efits of exercise to seniors. She asked each person if he or she would
be willing to generate approximately four proexercise arguments that
would be included in the book. All agreed to do so. The participants
generated their arguments orally and the experimenter converted
them into written bullet points.
Following the bullet point arguments, participants who had been
randomly assigned to the Hypocrisy condition (n = 21) were told, “We
are also trying to find out what prevents some people from exercis‐
ing even when they have the opportunity. The researchers at the
university thought it would be helpful if you could think of one or
two times that you had the opportunity to exercise, but you chose
1
A priori power analysis indicates that, assuming a small effect size, in order to achieve
80% power we would have needed to recruit 159 participants in total (53 per condition).
We were not able to recruit this number of participants, due to the size and restrictions
of the senior citizen community where our special population was recruited.

36 | COOPER and FELDMAN
not to. Just think of some instances that you really remember.” All
participants were able to generate occasions that they had not exer‐
cised and they were recorded by the experimenter.
In the Advocacy‐Only condition (n = 21), participants generated
their proexercise arguments but were not asked to generate memo‐
ries of having failed to exercise. Instead, they completed the depen‐
dent measures immediately following their bullet‐point arguments in
favor of exercising.
Participants who had been randomly assigned to the Control con‐
dition (n = 21) agreed to participate in research on physical exercise
and proceeded directly to the dependent measure questionnaire.
2.2.1 | Dependent measures
The dependent measures consisted of a questionnaire that in‐
quired about several issues, including participants’ intentions to
increase their exercise behavior, their attitudes regarding the im‐
portance of exercise, and the number of hours that they planned
to exercise per week in the future. To measure specific changes in
participants' intentions to alter the time they intended to devote
to exercise, they were asked to indicate specifically how many
hours they had exercised per week in the recent past and then
to “indicate how many times per week you plan to exercise in the
future,” thus providing us with an estimated difference between
participants' past exercise levels and their expected exercise lev‐
els in the future.
We also included four items that asked about participants' atti‐
tudes toward the importance of exercise and their general intentions
to exercise in the future. As a measure of their behavioral intentions
to exercise in the future, participants were asked, “In the future I plan
to make an increased effort to do regular physical exercise”, “Going
forward, I plan to exercise more often than I did before” and “When
I exercise in the near future, I plan to exercise for longer periods of
time than I had been before.” As a measure of their attitudes toward
exercise, participants were asked, “In my opinion, regular physical
exercise is important for maintaining good health.” Each item was
asked on 7‐point Likert type scales ranging from “strongly agree” to
“strongly disagree.”
Summarizing our hypotheses, we predicted that participants in
the hypocrisy condition would show the highest degree of inten‐
tion to increase their exercise behavior compared to participants
in the control or advocacy‐only conditions. Second, we predicted
that participants would express more favorable attitudes about
the importance of exercising under hypocrisy condition relative to
those in the other two conditions. We had no dissonance‐based
prediction as to whether advocacy‐only participants would express
greater intention to exercise than participants in the control con‐
dition but tentatively expected that advocating for the importance
of exercise might result in somewhat improved intentions and
attitudes.
Finally, in line with previous research on the role of discomfort in
the dissonance process, as well as the role of self‐esteem and self‐
efficacy in the maintenance of prohealth behaviors (Elliot & Devine,
15591816, 2020, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jasp.12639 by Radboud University Nijmegen, Wiley Online Library on [09/01/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
1994; McAuley, Elavksy, Motl, Konopack, Hu, & Marquez, 2005), the
participants completed a single‐item self‐esteem measure created
and validated by Robins, Hendin, and Trzesniewski (2001). They also
filled out single‐item measures asking about their current level of
comfort and their feelings of self‐efficacy.
3 | R E S U LT S
3.1 | Behavioral intentions
The data provide strong support for the effectiveness of the dis‐
sonance procedure to produce changes in participants’ behavior
intentions. We asked participants to estimate the number of hours
that they intended to exercise during the following week. Hypocrisy
participants expected to exercise for 5.2 hr, advocacy‐only partici‐
pants intended to exercise for 4.0 hr and the control group planned
to exercise for 3.7 hr. An ANOVA performed on the behavioral inten‐
tion data showed that the difference was significant, F(2, 60) = 3.28,
p = .044, η2 = .098. Post hoc comparisons using Tukey's HSD test
showed, as predicted, that the hypocrisy condition differed signifi‐
cantly from the no‐treatment control condition (p = .018). The dif‐
ference between the hypocrisy and advocacy‐only conditions was
marginal (p = .064), and the difference between the control and ad‐
vocacy‐only conditions was not significant (p = .584).
We also collected data on participants’ recollection of the num‐
ber of hours that they had exercised during the week prior to the
intervention. The pre and postintervention data are presented in
Figure 1. The results support our predictions. A 2 × 3 mixed model
ANOVA of the data shows no difference in prior exercise behavior,
a main effect for time, F(1, 61) = 4.24, p < .05, η2 = .112, and, as
predicted, a significant time × condition interaction, F(2, 61) = 8.81,
p < .001, η2 = .213. Post hoc tests comparing the effects of the hy‐
pocrisy, advocacy‐only, and control conditions on participants’ pre
and postchange scores are reported below.
An analysis of simple change scores for each participant is con‐
sistent with the mixed model ANOVA. We subtracted the number of
hours each participant recalled exercising prior to the intervention
from their intention to exercise in the following week. Participants
in the hypocrisy condition expected to exercise 1.7 hr per week
more than they had done in the past. Advocacy‐only participants
expected to increase their exercise by 32 min and control partici‐
pants expected to increase their exercise by 23 min. The ANOVA
on the change scores shows that the difference was significant, F(2,
62) = 8.59, p < .001, η2 = .223. In addition, post hoc comparisons
using Tukey's HSD procedure showed that the increase in intended
hours for the hypocrisy condition was significantly greater than
the control condition (p < .001) and the advocacy‐only condition
(p < 002). There was no difference between the control and advo‐
cacy‐only conditions (p = .49).
Other questions that inquired about behavioral intentions
showed similar patterns of results but were not statistically signif‐
icant. Participants in the hypocrisy condition estimated that, in gen‐
eral, they planned to exercise for longer periods of time, planned to

COOPER and FELDMAN
F I G U R E 1 Reported hours of
exercise. Dark bars = number of hours
reported prior to the intervention; light
bars = number of hours participants
intended to exercise following week
TA B L E 1 Ratings of the importance of exercise
Condition M SD
Hypocrisy 6.76 0.54
Advocacy Only 6.43 0.75
Control 6.05 0.80
Note: Higher numbers indicate greater importance, scale = 1–7.
make more of an effort to exercise and planned to exercise more
often than participants in the other conditions, but those differences
were not statistically significant.
3.2 | Attitudes
We asked our participants how important they thought exercise is
for maintaining good health (see Table 1).
As indicated by the control condition, our elderly participants
expressed extreme support for the importance of regular physical
exercise, rating its importance a 6.05 (M = 6.05, SD = 0.80) on a scale
of 1–7, where 7 was extremely important. Nonetheless, the manip‐
ulation of hypocrisy increased the perceived importance of exercise
(M = 6.76, SD = 0.54). The advocacy‐only group fell in between the
control and hypocrisy group (M = 6.43, SD = 0.75). Although the
ratings of importance were near the ceiling of the scale, the one‐
way ANOVA was nonetheless significant, F(2, 60) = 5.38, p = .007,
η2 = .152. Tukey's HSD procedure further showed that the hypocrisy
condition led to a greater increase in importance compared to the
control condition (p < .002). In addition, the advocacy‐only condi‐
tion produced a marginally greater increase in importance than the
control condition (p < .09), although this difference was not statis‐
tically significant. There was no difference between the importance
ratings in the hypocrisy condition and the advocacy‐only conditions
(p < .13).
15591816, 2020, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jasp.12639 by Radboud University Nijmegen, Wiley Online Library on [09/01/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
| 37
There were no differences in any of the dependent measures as
a function of participants' gender or age.
3.3 | Discomfort
The response to the question inquiring about discomfort showed al‐
most no variance. About 61 of the 63 participants responded with
a 1 on the 1–5 scale (M = 1.03) where 1 was labeled as “very com‐
fortable”. Similarly, participants asserted a uniformly high sense of
self‐esteem and self‐efficacy.
4 | D I S CU S S I O N
Overall, the pattern of results supports the prediction that having
people confront the discrepancy between their positive attitudes to‐
ward exercise and their past reluctance to engage creates a positive
force for change. Members of an elderly community advocated for
the importance of exercise, but when made aware of past behaviors
discrepant with their attitude, they increased their specific commit‐
ment toward exercise and became even more positive about how
much they believed in its importance. To our knowledge, this is the
first study to show that hypocrisy occurs in an elderly population
and that the hypocrisy paradigm of dissonance can create prohealth
changes in the behavioral intentions and attitudes of the elderly.
We were agnostic about predictions for proattitudinal advocacy
in the advocacy‐only condition. Surely, advocacy focuses partici‐
pants' attention on the issue of exercise and, consistent with self‐
perception theory (Bem, 1972), may well lead to positive changes.
Our prediction was that by connecting proattitudinal advocacy
with reminders of past transgressions, dissonance would be evoked
and lead to greater changes than occurred for self‐perception. The
results supported our predictions but also gave some credence to
the mere advocacy of prohealth goals. On most of the dependent

38 | COOPER and FELDMAN
measures, advocacy‐only showed greater prohealth attitudes and
intentions than the control condition, but always less than the hy‐
pocrisy condition.
Participants in the hypocrisy conditions had little difficulty re‐
calling instances in which they felt they could have exercised but
chose not to do so. Reasons ranged from those that might affect
anyone, such as, “the phone rang just as I was about to go out. By the
time the call was over, I didn't feel like walking anymore.” Other rea‐
sons included physical problems related to age such as being afraid
of falling on wet pavement or worrying about a backache. Several
just said they felt lazy at the time they could have gone swimming
or gone for a walk. What is important for establishing a dissonance‐
based intervention is that people were easily able to recall the oc‐
casions in which physical activity was a distinct possibility but they
had declined to follow through. The combination of recalling past
decisions that were inconsistent with their advocacy of exercise es‐
tablishes the important conditions to motivate positive changes in
their behavioral intentions.
In principle, hypocrisy is driven by the need to reduce the un‐
comfortable tension state of dissonance (Aronson, 1999). We did
not find differences in discomfort across conditions, with almost all
of our elderly participants reporting a high degree of comfort. It is
possible that the context of the present study—that is, conducted
at a community recreation area rather than a lab and conducted
by a member of the residential community—influenced people to
report high levels of comfort and satisfaction. Although there has
been some evidence that hypocrisy is accompanied by discomfort
(Focella et al., 2016; Fried & Aronson, 1995), Priolo and colleagues'
(2019) meta‐analysis of hypocrisy research concluded that evidence
for discomfort is equivocal. Establishing whether the discomfort
is associated with hypocrisy‐driven effects is worthy of further
studies.
Subsequent research seeking ways to leverage cognitive disso‐
nance to improve elderly people's decision making about exercise
should be considered in the context of psychological factors that
have been shown to affect healthy decision making. Bandura (2004)
has suggested that the core determinants of healthy decision making
are people's knowledge of the health risks and benefits of a partic‐
ular action, their perceived self‐efficacy, and their expectations for
successful outcomes. White et al. (2012) showed that among a sam‐
ple of older men and women, self‐efficacy and outcome expecta‐
tions were the factors that were directly related to changes in levels
of physical activity. A route for further research would be to inte‐
grate the psychological factors that promote physical exercise with
the dissonance‐based technique we have presented. For example,
interventions that motivate exercise through cognitive dissonance
and that simultaneously facilitate greater self‐efficacy may be espe‐
cially effective at eliminating the sedentary behaviors that put the
elderly at risk for physical and mental illness.
There are limitations to the current research that warrant
comment. First, we were not able to continue to contact our par‐
ticipants to measure their actual behavior in the days and weeks fol‐
lowing our intervention. Subsequent research should be designed
15591816, 2020, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jasp.12639 by Radboud University Nijmegen, Wiley Online Library on [09/01/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
to obtain behavioral data tracking real‐time changes in aerobic or
other physical activities. Priolo et al.'s (2019) meta‐analysis found
that hypocrisy interventions have been effective at changing both
intentions and behavior. Overall, researchers have found a robust
relationship between behavioral intentions and behavior (Ajzen,
Albarracin, & Hornik, 2007; Armitage & Conner, 2001; Webb &
Sheeran, 2006). For example, in research on safe sex behaviors,
Albarracín, Johnson, Fishbein, and Muellerleile (2001) found a
highly reliable correlation between the intentions to use condoms
and the actual use of condoms. At the aggregate level, Webb and
Sheeran’s (2006) meta‐analysis of 47 studies found that a medium‐
to‐large change in intention (d = 0.66) led to a small‐to‐medium
change in behavior (d = 0.36). In subsequent practical applications
of hypocrisy to exercise in the population of elderly adults, imple‐
mentation should pay attention to factors that have been shown
to strengthen the link between behavioral intentions and behav‐
ior. For example, adopting implementation plans and strengthening
habits can serve to augment further the practical link between in‐
tentions and actual behaviors.
Future work applying hypocrisy to elderly participants’ commit‐
ment to exercise should include potential individual differences in
our participants that might augment or diminish the effect. For ex‐
ample, there may be a range of individual differences in the mere
enjoyment of physical exercise, as well as participants' specific his‐
tories and experiences with exercise that play moderating roles.
Additionally, it would be interesting to determine the cognitions
that are activated when participants recall the instances that pre‐
vented them from exercising and assess whether different types of
cognitions (e.g., body shaming) affect the success of the interven‐
tion. Future studies could examine the motivational impacts of such
concern types.
We also note that two‐thirds of our participants were women.
Future research may wish to study gender more systematically. We
found no differences as a function of gender and also note that, in
the age group of our participants, women in the U.S. population out‐
number men (100 women to every 79 men).
Cognitive dissonance has been a powerful theoretical concept
in social psychology for more than 60 years. It has led to provoca‐
tive hypotheses and findings of how people resolve inconsistencies
and has clashed with other theoretical approaches (e.g., learning and
self‐perception theories) for acceptance as a fundamental process in
human social behavior (Cooper, 2007). At the heart of social psychol‐
ogy has been the twin goals of expanding theory and using theory
for the betterment of personal and social issues. Psychologists have
paid attention to Lewin's (1951) dictum that there is nothing more
practical than a good theory. In the current instance, we have been
able to expand the reach of dissonance by showing that people's
fundamental reaction to the inconsistency of hypocrisy motivates
them to increase their intentions to act in ways that can preserve
and strengthen their physical and psychological health. “Couch
potatoes” are resistant to getting off the couch. The current work
suggests that dissonance can be a powerful motivator to accomplish
that goal.

COOPER and FELDMAN
ORCID
Lauren A. Feldman https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0893-1665
REFERENCES
Ajzen, I., Albarracin, D., & Hornik, R. (2007). Prediction and change of
health behavior: Applying the reasoned action approach. Mahwah, NJ:
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.
Albarracín, D., Johnson, B. T., Fishbein, M., & Muellerleile, P. A. (2001).
Theories of reasoned action and planned behavior as models of con‐
dom use: A meta‐analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 127(1), 142–161.
https​://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.127.1.142
Armitage, C. J., & Conner, M. (2001). Efficacy of the theory of planned
behaviour: A meta‐analytic review. The British Journal of Social
Psychology, 40, 471–499. https​://doi.org/10.1348/01446​66011​
64939​
Aronson, E. (1999). Dissonance, hypocrisy and the self‐concept. In E.
Harmon‐Jones & J. Mills (Eds.), Cognitive dissonance: Progress on a piv‐
otal theory in social psychology (pp. 103–126). Washington, DC: APA.
Aronson, E., & Carlsmith, J. M. (1963). The effect of severity of threat on
the devaluation of forbidden behavior. Journal of Abnormal and Social
Psychology, 66, 584–588.
Aronson, E., & Mills, J. (1959). The effect of severity of initiation on liking
for a group. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 59, 177–181.
Axsom, D. (1989). Cognitive dissonance and behavior change in psycho‐
therapy. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 25(3), 234–252.
https​://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(89)90021-8
Azdia, T., Girandola, F., & Andraud, O. (2002). Engagement, dissonance
cognitive et identification de l’action: Le cas de l'escalade sport‐
ive. European Review of Applied Psychology [Revue Europeenne de
Psychologie Appliquee], 52(2), 81–90.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self‐efficacy: The exercise of control. New York, NY:
Macmillan.
Bandura, A. (2004). Health promotion by social cognitive means. Health
Education & Behavior, 31(2), 143–164. https​://doi.org/10.1177/10901​
98104​263660
Becker, M. H., & Joseph, J. G. (1988). AIDS and behavior change to re‐
duce risk: A review. American Journal of Public Health, 78, 394–410.
Beckman, L. J., Harvey, S. M., & Tiersky, L. A. (2010). Attitudes about con‐
doms and condom use among college students. Journal of American
College Health, 44(6), 243–250.
Bélanger‐Gravel, A., Godin, G., & Amireault, S. (2013). A meta‐ana‐
lytic review of the effect of implementation intentions on phys‐
ical activity. Health Psychology Review, 7(1), 23–54. https​ ://doi.
org/10.1080/17437​199.2011.560095
Bem, D. J. (1972). Self‐perception theory. In L. Berkowitz (Ed), Advances in
experimental social psychology (Vol. 6, pp. 1–62). New York: Academic
Press.
Booth, F. W., Laye, M. J., & Roberts, M. D. (2011). Lifetime sedentary
living accelerates some aspects of secondary aging. Journal of Applied
Physiology, 111(5), 1497–1504. https​://doi.org/10.1152/jappl​physi​
ol.00420.2011
Brehm, J. W. (1956). Postdecision changes in the desirability of alterna‐
tives. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 52, 384–389. https​://
doi.org/10.1037/h0041006
Cooper, J. (1980). Reducing fears and increasing assertiveness: The role
of dissonance reduction. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,
16(3), 199–213. https​://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(80)90064-5
Cooper, J. (2007). Cognitive dissonance: 50 years of a classic theory.
London, UK: Sage.
Cooper, J., & Feldman, L. A. (2019). Does cognitive dissonance occur in
older age? A study of induced compliance in a healthy elderly popu‐
lation. Psychology and Aging, 34(5), 709–713.
15591816, 2020, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jasp.12639 by Radboud University Nijmegen, Wiley Online Library on [09/01/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
| 39
de Wit, L., van Straten, A., Lamers, F., Cuijpers, P., & Penninx, B. (2011).
Are sedentary television watching and computer use behaviors as‐
sociated with anxiety and depressive disorders? Psychiatry Research,
186(2), 239–243. https​://doi.org/10.1016/j.psych​res.2010.07.003
Elliot, A. J., & Devine, P. G. (1994). On the motivational nature of cog‐
nitive dissonance: Dissonance as psychological discomfort. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(3), 382–394. https​ ://doi.
org/10.1037/0022-3514.67.3.382
Estabrooks, P., & Carron, A. V. (1999). The influence of the group with
elderly exercisers. Small Group Research, 30(4), 438–452. https​://doi.
org/10.1177/10464​96499​03000403
Evenson, K. R., Buchner, D. M., & Morland, K. B. (2012). Objective mea‐
surement of physical activity and sedentary behavior among US
adults aged 60 years or older. Preventing Chronic Disease, 9, E26.
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance (Vol. 2). Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press.
Festinger, L., & Carlsmith, J. M. (1959). Cognitive consequences of forced
compliance. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58(2), 203.
Fleig, L., Pomp, S., Schwarzer, R., & Lippke, S. (2013). Promoting exer‐
cise maintenance: How interventions with booster sessions improve
long‐term rehabilitation outcomes. Rehabilitation Psychology, 58(4),
323–333. https​://doi.org/10.1037/a0033885
Focella, E. S., Stone, J., Fernandez, N. C., Cooper, J., & Hogg, M. A. (2016).
Vicarious hypocrisy: Bolstering attitudes and taking action after ex‐
posure to a hypocritical ingroup member. Journal of Experimental Social
Psychology, 62, 89–102. https​://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2015.09.014
Fried, C. B., & Aronson, E. (1995). Hypocrisy, misattribution and disso‐
nance reduction. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 925–
933. https​://doi.org/10.1177/01461​67295​219007
Fried, L. P. (2000). Epidemiology of aging. Epidemiologic Reviews, 22(1),
95–106. https​://doi.org/10.1093/oxfor​djour​nals.epirev.a018031
Harmon‐Jones, E., Amodio, D. M., & Harmon‐Jones, C. (2009). Action
based model of dissonance: A review, integration, and expansion
of conceptions of cognitive conflict. Advances in Experimental Social
Psychology, 41, 119–166.
Lewin, K. (1951). Field theory in social science: Selected theoretical papers.
New York: Harper & Brothers.
McAuley, E., Elavsky, S., Motl, R. W., Konopack, J. F., Hu, L., & Marquez,
D. X. (2005). Physical activity, self‐efficacy, and self‐esteem:
Longitudinal relationships in older adults. The Journals of Gerontology.
Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 60(5), 268–275.
https​://doi.org/10.1093/geron​b/60.5.P268
McAuley, E., Lox, C., & Duncan, T. E. (1993). Long‐term maintenance
of exercise, self‐efficacy, and physiological change in older adults.
Journal of Gerontology, 48(4), 218–224. https​ ://doi.org/10.1093/
geron​j/48.4.P218
Priolo, D., Pelt, A., Bauzel, R. S., Rubens, L., Voisin, D., & Fointiat, V.
(2019). Three decades of research on induced hypocrisy: A Meta‐
analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 1–21. https​://doi.
org/10.1177/01461​67219​8 41621
Robins, R. W., Hendin, H. M., & Trzesniewski, K. H. (2001). Measuring
global self‐esteem: Construct validation of a single‐item measure
and the Rosenberg self‐esteem scale. Personality & Social Psychology
Bulletin, 27(2), 151–161. https​://doi.org/10.1177/01461​67201​272002
Stice, E., & Shaw, H. (2004). Eating disorder prevention programs: A
meta‐analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 130(2), 206. https​://doi.
org/10.1037/0033-2909.130.2.206
Stone, J., Aronson, E., Crain, A. L., Winslow, M. P., & Fried, C. B. (1994).
Inducing hypocrisy as a means of encouraging young adults to use
condoms. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20(1), 116–128.
https​://doi.org/10.1177/01461​67294​201012
Stone, J., Wiegand, A. W., Cooper, J., & Aronson, E. (1997). When ex‐
emplification fails: Hypocrisy and the motive for self‐integrity.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72(1), 54. https​ ://doi.
org/10.1037/0022-3514.72.1.54
 15591816, 2020, 1, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jasp.12639 by Radboud University Nijmegen, Wiley Online Library on [09/01/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
40 | COOPER and FELDMAN

Thorp, A. A., Owen, N., Neuhaus, M., & Dunstan, D. W. (2011). Sedentary The Journals of Gerontology: Series B: Psychological and Social Sciences,
behaviors and subsequent health outcomes in adults: A system‐ 67(1), 18–26.
atic review of longitudinal studies, 1996–2011. American Journal
of Preventive Medicine, 41(2), 207–215. https​ ://doi.org/10.1016/j.
amepre.2011.05.004
How to cite this article: Cooper J, Feldman LA. Helping the
Webb, T. L., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Does changing behavioral intentions
“couch potato”: A cognitive dissonance approach to
engender behavior change? A meta‐analysis of the experimen‐
tal evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 132(2), 249–268. https​ ://doi. increasing exercise in the elderly. J Appl Soc Psychol.
org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.2.249 2020;50:33–40. https​://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12639​
White, S. M., Wójcicki, T. R., & McAuley, E. (2012). Social cognitive influ‐
ences on physical activity behavior in middle‐age and older adults.