Cognitive dissonance induced by writing a counterattitudinal essay facilitates performance on simple tasks but not on complex tasks that involve working memory

Marie-Amélie Martinie (1, 2, 3) , Thierry Olive (1, 2, 3) , Laurent Milland (1, 2, 3)

1 UP - Université de Poitiers = University of Poitiers
2 CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
3 CeRCA [Poitiers] - Centre de recherches sur la cognition et l'apprentissage [UMR 7295]

This article examines how performance is facilitated with simple tasks and is impaired with complex ones in individuals experiencing dissonance. Experiment 1 measured the performance of dissonance participants at a simple reaction time task. Reaction times were shortest in the dissonance condition. This facilitation effect was interpreted as resulting from increased arousal with dissonance. In Experiment 2, participants performed a more complex secondary memory task that required to memorize and to recall short and long series of numbers. Participants in the dissonance condition performed less well than participants in the no-dissonance condition only under a high memory load and did not differ with a low load. It is suggested that dissonance requires some working memory resources. Accordingly, it is assumed that the arousal properties of dissonance facilitates performance with simple task that do not involve working memory and require a dominant response, but that dissonance impairs performance with tasks that strongly involve working memory.

Mots clés: Social Sciences & Humanities

Domaines: Psychologie et comportements

Marie-Amélie Martinie, Thierry Olive, Laurent Milland. Cognitive dissonance induced by writing a counterattitudinal essay facilitates performance on simple tasks but not on complex tasks that involve working memory. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2010, 46 (4), pp.587-594. ⟨10.1016/j.jesp.2009.10.018⟩. ⟨hal-00747697⟩