Cognitive-load researchers attempt to engineer the instructional control of cognitive load by designing methods that substitute productive for unproductive cognitive load. This article highlights ...proven and new methods to achieve this instructional control by focusing on the cognitive architecture used by cognitive-load theory and aspects of the learning task, the learner, and the learning environment.
Selective exposure research indicates that news consumers tend to seek out attitude-consistent information and avoid attitude-challenging information. This study examines online news credibility and ...cognitive dissonance as theoretical explanations for partisan selective exposure behavior. After viewing an attitudinally consistent, challenging, or politically balanced online news source, cognitive dissonance, credibility perceptions, and likelihood of selective exposure were measured. Results showed that people judge attitude-consistent and neutral news sources as more credible than attitude-challenging news sources, and although people experience slightly more cognitive dissonance when exposed to attitude-challenging news sources, overall dissonance levels were quite low. These results refute the cognitive dissonance explanation for selective exposure and suggest a new explanation that is based on credibility perceptions rather than psychological discomfort with attitude-challenging information.
•Environmental activists understand the effects of pollution and climate change.•But even environmental activists harm the environment by going on vacation.•They perceive tension or guilt (cognitive ...dissonance) about this fact, and•construct beliefs to reduce this tension without changing behaviour.•Six groups of such beliefs are identified and illustrated.
This study investigates why people who actively engage in environmental protection at home engage in vacation behaviour which has negative environmental consequences, albeit unintentionally. The environmental activists participating in the study were highly aware of the negative environmental consequences of tourism in general, but all displayed an attitude–behaviour gap which made them feel uncomfortable. Participants did not report changing their behaviour; instead, they offered a wide range of explanations justifying their tourist activities. Gaining insight into these explanations contributes to our understanding of why it is so difficult to motivate people to minimize the negative environmental impacts of their vacations, and represents a promising starting point for new interventions to reduce environmentally unsustainable tourism behaviours.
...enchantment involves the feeling of being lifted out of the everyday experience of the mundane world and mentally situated 'betwixt and between' reality and fantasy (for a review, see Drinkwater ...et al., 2020). Particularly, Lange, Houran, and Tracey's (2021) cluster analysis of tourists' narratives revealed five categories of enchanting experiences that were labeled: (a) Escapade (an adventurous escape to a particular destination), (b) Nostalgia (reminiscence related to special 'first-time' events), (c) Catharsis (participation in events related to liberation or ecstasy), (d) Communion (impromptu or planned fellowship under special circumstances), and (e) Attachment (family activities that reinforce bonding and sense of legacy). ...ratings of enchantment likewise coincide with scores on measures of psychological absorption (van Elk et al., 2016) and the personality trait of openness to experience (Berenbaum, 2002). ...the ensuing dis-ease related to the EHE can include significant disruptions to the person's psychological, social, or occupational functioning (Dein, 2012).
Cause-related marketing has gained momentum in the business world. Socially responsible practices can be viable solutions to food waste and excessive alcohol consumption for hospitality businesses. ...Drawing on attribution and cognitive dissonance theory, the study examined the effect of complementary fit on perceived authenticity and purchase intention by product type and message appeal. A 2 (product type: utilitarian/hedonic) x 2 (message appeal: absence/presence) between-subjects experimental design was conducted. The findings reveal that promoting hedonic products can increase the effect of complementary fit on the perception of authenticity toward the campaign and land purchase intention with a positive impact. Particularly, this effect is contingent on message appeal. The positive effect of complementarity on purchase intention through perceived authenticity is more significant when a message is present. This study leverages attribute theory and cognitive dissonance theory to examine the effects of complementary fit between product and cause, product type, and message appeal on customers’ perceptions of authenticity and behaviors in the restaurant context. These insights not only contribute to academic knowledge but also help practitioners to navigate the dynamics of cause-related marketing to drive successful campaign outcomes.
According to prominent models in cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and economics, effort (be it physical or mental) is costly: when given a choice, humans and non-human animals alike tend to avoid ...effort. Here, we suggest that the opposite is also true and review extensive evidence that effort can also add value. Not only can the same outcomes be more rewarding if we apply more (not less) effort, sometimes we select options precisely because they require effort. Given the increasing recognition of effort’s role in motivation, cognitive control, and value-based decision-making, considering this neglected side of effort will not only improve formal computational models, but also provide clues about how to promote sustained mental effort across time.
Prominent models in the cognitive sciences indicate that mental and physical effort is costly, and that we avoid it. Here, we suggest that this is only half of the story.
Humans and non-human animals alike tend to associate effort with reward and will sometimes select objects or activities precisely because they require effort (e.g., mountain climbing, ultra-marathons).
Effort adds value to the products of effort, but effort itself also has value.
Effort’s value can not only be accessed concurrently with or immediately following effort exertion, but also in anticipation of such expenditure, suggesting that we already have an intuitive understanding of effort’s potential positive value.
If effort is consistently rewarded, people might learn that effort is valuable and become more willing to exert it in general.
The present research tested the effect of manipulated perceived control (over obtaining the outcomes) and effort on reward valuation using the event‐related potential known as the Reward Positivity ...(RewP). This test was conducted in an attempt to integrate two research literatures with opposite findings: Effort justification occurs when high effort leads to high reward valuation, whereas effort discounting occurs when high effort leads to low reward valuation. Based on an examination of past methods used in these literatures, we predicted that perceived control and effort would interactively influence RewP. Consistent with the effort justification literature (cognitive dissonance theory), when individuals have high perceived control, high effort should lead to more reward valuation than low effort should. Consistent with the effort discounting literature, when individuals have low perceived control, low effort should lead to more reward valuation than high effort should. Results supported these interactive and integrative predictions.
Our research integrated two contrasting hypotheses for how effort influences reward valuation. The hypotheses were effort justification and effort discounting. Perceived control (low vs. high) should interact with effort to influence reward valuation. When individuals had high perceived control, high effort led to high reward valuation. When individuals had low perceived control, high effort led to low reward valuation.
Meat eating is a common behaviour, despite many people claiming to like, love, and care about animals. The apparent disconnection between not wanting animals to suffer, yet killing them for food, has ...been termed the ‘meat paradox.’ In this experimental study (N = 460), participants completed pre-affect, post-affect, meat attachment, and attitude towards animals questionnaires, under two conditions: exposure to the life of an Australian meat lamb, and information about the nutritional benefits of meat. A factorial MANOVA revealed that negative affect was significantly greater when participants were exposed to the meat-animal connection; however, more entrenched attitudes towards animals and attachment to meat remained unaffected. Significant gender effects were found across all variables: most notably, meat attachment differed according to gender, decreasing in women and increasing in men when exposed to the meat-animal condition. Open-ended responses were subjected to content analysis to understand participants' future meat-consumption preferences and accompanying reasoning strategies. Findings from the present study contribute to understanding how cognitive dissonance and inconsistencies are rationalised by meat consumers.
Selective reading of political online information was examined based on cognitive dissonance, social identity, and news values frameworks. Online reports were displayed to 156 Americans while ...selective exposure was tracked. The news articles that participants chose from were either conservative or liberal and also either positive or negative regarding American political policies. In addition, information processing styles (cognitive reflection and need-for-cognition) were measured. Results revealed confirmation and negativity biases, per cognitive dissonance and news values, but did not corroborate the hypothesis derived from social identity theory. Greater cognitive reflection, greater need-for-cognition, and worse affective state fostered the confirmation bias; stronger social comparison tendency reduced the negativity bias.
Since its introduction to the social psychology literature 60 years ago, Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory (CDT) has been frequently applied to the management literature to explain and predict ...the motivational nature of dissonance in producing attitude and behavior change in managerial decision making and the broader organizational context. Yet many of the popular constructs that stem from CDT have since lost touch with more recent developments in the field of origin. In this paper, we provide a review of the key constructs and predictions associated with CDT from Festinger’s early work to the latest developments. We then review key management research that has incorporated CDT. Drawing from the latest refinements to CDT, we describe how future management studies could benefit by integrating these refinements into their theoretical frameworks, rather than simply relying on Festinger’s seminal work on the 60th anniversary of its publication (1957).
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