The psychophysiological correlates of cognitive dissonance.
cognitive dissonance
dissonance arousal
dissonance reduction
news exposure
psychophysiology
Journal
Politics and the life sciences : the journal of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences
ISSN: 1471-5457
Titre abrégé: Politics Life Sci
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 8800535
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
Nov 2021
Nov 2021
Historique:
entrez:
26
11
2021
pubmed:
27
11
2021
medline:
6
5
2022
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
This preregistered study uses a combination of physiological measures to explore both the activation and reduction components of cognitive dissonance theory. More precisely, we use skin conductance to identify dissonance arousal, a short-term affective response to counter-attitudinal stimuli, and then use heart rate variability to measure dissonance reduction, which reflects longer-term patterns of emotional regulation and information processing. Our preliminary tests find weak evidence of dissonance arousal and no evidence of dissonance reduction using this physiological approach. We consequently reconsider (albeit optimistically) the use of physiology in future work on cognitive dissonance. We also discuss the implications of our findings for selective exposure and motivated reasoning.
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
202-212Références
Appelhans, B. M., & Luecken, L. J. (2006). Heart rate variability as an index of regulated emotional responding. Review of General Psychology, 10(3), 229–240. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.10.3.229
Bakker, B. N., Schumacher, G., Gothreau, C., & Arceneaux, K. (2020). Conservatives and liberals have similar physiological responses to threats. Nature Human Behaviour, 4, 613–621. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0823-z
Bolsen, T., Druckman, J. N., & Cook, F. L. (2014). The influence of partisan motivated reasoning on public opinion. Political Behavior, 36(2), 235–262. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-013-9238-0
Cacioppo, J. T., Tassinary, L. G., & Berntson, G. (2007). Handbook of psychophysiology. Cambridge University Press.
Cohen, H., Kaplan, Z., Kotler, M., Mittelman, I., Osher, Y., & Bersudsky, Y. (2003). Impaired heart rate variability in euthymic bipolar patients. Bipolar Disorders, 5(2), 138–143. https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1399-5618.2003.00027.x
Cooper, J., Darley, J. M., & Henderson, J. E. (1974). On the effectiveness of deviant- and conventional-appearing communicators: A field experiment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 29(6), 752–757. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0036200
Cooper, J., & Fazio, R. H. (1984). A new look at dissonance theory. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 17, pp. 229–266). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60121-5
Croyle, R. T., & Cooper, J. (1983). Dissonance arousal: Physiological evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45(4), 782–791. https://doi.org/10.1037/00223514.45.4.782
Druckman, J. N., Green, D. P., Kuklinski, J. H., & Lupia, A. (2011). Cambridge handbook of experimental political science. Cambridge University Press.
Dunaway, J., & Soroka, S. (2019). Smartphone-size screens constrain cognitive access to video news stories. Information, Communication & Society, 24(1), 69–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1631367
Elkin, R. A., & Leippe, M. R. (1986). Physiological arousal, dissonance, and attitude change: Evidence for a dissonance-arousal link and a “don't remind me” effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(1), 55–65.
Etgen, M. P., & Rosen, E. F. (1993). Cognitive dissonance: Physiological arousal in the performance expectancy paradigm. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 31(3), 229–231. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03337331
Fabes, R. A., & Eisenberg, N. (1997). Regulatory control and adults' stress-related responses to daily life events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(5), 1107–1117. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.73.5.1107
Fabes, R. A., Eisenberg, N., & Eisenbud, L. (1993). Behavioral and physiological correlates of children's reactions to others in distress. Developmental Psychology, 29(4), 655–663. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.29.4.655
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford University Press.
Festinger, L., & Carlsmith, J. M. (1959). Cognitive consequences of forced compliance. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58(2), 203–210. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0041593
Fournier, P., Soroka S., & Nir, L. 2020. Negativity biases and political ideology: A comparative test across 17 countries. American Political Science Review, 114(3), 775–791. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055420000131
Freedman, J. L., & Sears, D. O. (1965). Selective exposure. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 57–97). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60103-3
Fuller, B. F. (1992). The effects of stress-anxiety and coping styles on heart rate variability. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 12(1), 81–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-8760(92)90045-D
Garrett, R. K. (2009). Politically motivated reinforcement seeking: Reframing the selective exposure debate. Journal of Communication, 59(4), 676–699. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2009.01452.x
Gerard, H. B. (1967). Choice difficulty, dissonance, and the decision sequence. Journal of Personality, 35(1), 91–108. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1967.tb01417.x
Garrett, R. K., & Stroud, N. J. (2014). Partisan paths to exposure diversity: Differences in pro- and counterattitudinal news consumption. Journal of Communication, 64(4), 680–701. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12105
Harmon-Jones, E. (2019). Cognitive dissonance: Reexamining a pivotal theory in psychology. American Psychological Association.
Hart, W., Albarracín, D., Eagly, A. H., Brechan, I., Lindberg, M. J., & Merrill, L. (2009). Feeling validated versus being correct: A meta-analysis of selective exposure to information. Psychological Bulletin, 135(4), 555–588. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015701
Higgins, E. T., Rhodewalt, F., & Zanna, M. P. (1979). Dissonance motivation: Its nature, persistence, and reinstatement. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 15 (1), 16–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(79)90015-5
Kunda, Z. (1990). The case for motivated reasoning. Psychological Bulletin, 108(3), 480–498. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.108.3.480
Lang, A., Zhou, S., Schwartz, N., Bolls, P. D., & Potter, R. F. (2000). The effects of edits on arousal, attention, and memory for television messages: When an edit is an edit can an edit be too much? Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 44(1), 94–109. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem4401_7
Leeper, T. J., & Slothuus, R. (2014). Political parties, motivated reasoning, and public opinion formation. Political Psychology, 35(Suppl. 1), 129–156. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12164
Losch, M. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1990). Cognitive dissonance may enhance sympathetic tonus, but attitudes are changed to reduce negative affect rather than arousal. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 26(4), 289–304. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(90)90040-S
McDermott, R. (2002). Experimental methods in political science. Annual Review of Political Science, 5(1), 31–61.
Metzger, M. J., Hartsell, E. H., & Flanagin, A. J. (2015). Cognitive dissonance or credibility? A comparison of two theoretical explanations for selective exposure to partisan news. Communication Research, 47(1), 3–28. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650215613136
Mezzacappa, E., Tremblay, R. E., Kindlon, D., Saul, J. P., Arseneault, L., Seguin, J., Pihl, R. O., & Earls, F. (1997). Anxiety, antisocial behavior, and heart rate regulation in adolescent males. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38(4), 457–469. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14697610.1997.tb01531.x
O'Connor, M.-F., Allen, J. J. B., & Kaszniak, A. W. (2002). Autonomic and emotion regulation in bereavement and depression. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 52(4), 183–185. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-3999(02)00292-1
Osmundsen, M., Hendry, D., Laustsen, L., Smith, K., and Petersen, M. B. (in press). The psychophysiology of political ideology: Replications, reanalysis, and recommendations. Journal of Politics.
Pauls, C. A., & Stemmler, G. (2003). Repressive and defensive coping during fear and anger. Emotion, 3(3), 284–302. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.3.3.284
Peterson, E. (2017). The role of the information environment in partisan voting. Journal of Politics, 79(4), 1191–1204.
Petersen, M. B., Skov, M., Serritzlew, S., & Ramsøy, T. (2013). Motivated reasoning and political parties: Evidence for increased processing in the face of party cues. Political Behavior, 35(4), 831–854. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-012-9213-1
Porges, S. W. (1992). Vagal tone: A physiologic marker of stress vulnerability. Pediatrics, 90(3 Pt. 2), 498–504.
Potter, R. F., & Bolls, P. (2011). Psychophysiological measurement and meaning: Cognitive and emotional processing of media. Routledge.
Rechlin, T., Weis, M., Spitzer, A., & Kaschka, W. P. (1994). Are affective disorders associated with alterations of heart rate variability? Journal of Affective Disorders, 32(4), 271–275. https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-0327(94)90091-4
Sgoifo, A., Braglia, F., Costoli, T., Musso, E., Meerlo, P., Ceresini, G., & Troisi, A. (2003). Cardiac autonomic reactivity and salivary cortisol in men and women exposed to social stressors: Relationship with individual ethological profile. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 27(1–2), 179–188. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0149-7634(03)00019-8
Soroka, S., Fournier, P., & Nir, L. (2019). Cross-national evidence of a negativity bias in psychophysiological reactions to news. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116 (38), 18888–18892. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1908369116
Soroka, S., Fournier, P., Nir, L. & Hibbing, J. (2019). Psychophysiology in the study of political communication: An expository study of individual-level variation in negativity biases. Political Communication, 26(2): 288–302. https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2018.1493008
Soroka, S., & McAdams, S. (2015). News, politics and negativity. Political Communication, 32(1), 1–22.
Taber, C. S., & Lodge, M. (2006). Motivated skepticism in the evaluation of political beliefs. American Journal of Political Science, 50(3), 755–769. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.15405907.2006.00214.x
Task Force of the European Society of Cardiology and the North American Society for Pacing and Electrophysiology. (1996). Heart rate variability. Annals of Noninvasive Electrocardiology, 1(2), 151–181. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1542-474X.1996.tb00275.x
Thayer, J. F., Friedman, B. H., & Borkovec, T. D. (1996). Autonomic characteristics of generalized anxiety disorder and worry. Biological Psychiatry, 39(4), 255–266. https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-3223(95)00136-0
Thayer, J. F., & Lane, R. D. (2000). A model of neurovisceral integration in emotion regulation and dysregulation. Journal of Affective Disorders, 61(3), 201–216. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-0327(00)00338-4
Vraga, E. K. (2015). How party affiliation conditions the experience of dissonance and explains polarization and selective exposure. Social Science Quarterly, 96(2), 487–502. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12138
Westen, D., Blagov, P. S., Harenski, K., Kilts, C., & Hamann, S. (2006). Neural bases of motivated reasoning: An fMRI study of emotional constraints on partisan political judgment in the 2004 U.S. presidential election. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18(11), 1947–1958. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2006.18.11.1947
Zanna, M. P., & Cooper, J. (1974). Dissonance and the pill: An attribution approach to studying the arousal properties of dissonance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 29(5), 703–709. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0036651