Question

Situation: Corbin is fundamentally opposed to cheating (attitude). Despite this, Corbin accepted a friend's offer for answers to the stats exam and just cheated on a stats final (behavior). Corbin is quite unhappy about this conundrum. Use a social psychology construct to discuss what Corbin is likely experiencing.

(1)Discuss a study that deals with the construct you've discussed.

(2)What are Corbin's options to reduce the discomfort associated with the behavior of cheating on an exam despite believing that cheating is wrong?

Answer 1

Corbin is likely to experience cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is the conflict one has between his or her attitude , beliefs and behavior. In this case Corbin engaged in cheating (which is a behavior) though he strongly holds an attitude that is against cheating. Hence there is a conflict between Corbin's attitude and behavior.

1) Leon festinger, an American social psychologist, proposed Cognitive Dissonance in the year 1957. Leon Festinger and his colleague Merill Carlsmith conducted an experiment or study on cognitive dissonance. In this study there are two groups who were given no specific information about the experiment. They were told that it was a two hour experiment and that this experiment was to find the relationship between the experience that was expected when doing the task and the real experience one went through while doing the task. In reality the task that were given to the  groups were really boring. The task was to be done individually. The individuals of group one were offered 20 dollars for lying to another individual of the same group that the task is really fun and interesting. The individual of the other group was offered 1 dollar to lie to the others of the same group that the task was fun and interesting. It was observed that the individual who was offered 20 dollars lied naturally and in an unconcerned manner because the reward they would be receiving for lying is really high. But the individual who was offered one dollar found it a conflict to lie because the reward he or she was offered was really low. Hence he or she had to change their attitude towards the task and had to make themselves believe that the task was actually fun in order for them to lie. Hence since they had changed their attitude towards the task it was observed that they would not mind doing the task again. But the individuals in the group that received 20 dollars said that they do not want to do the task again since it was not interesting and was boring. These individuals attitude toward the task had not changed at all but they lied to the other of the same group because of the high reward they would be receiving.

2) One way that Corbin can reduce the cognitive dissonance that he is feeling is by changing his attitude towards cheating. If he starts believing that cheating is not so bad after all then his cognitive dissonance can be reduced.

Another way that Corbin can reduce the conflict that he is feeling is by never committing the behavior that goes against his attitude again. In this case he can make sure that he never cheats again. There by not solving the conflict between the behavior and the attitude.

Corbin can also bring his attitude and behavior in a rationalized manner. Though he believes that cheating is wrong he can justify his behavior by saying that its ok to cheat sometimes because everyone cheats.