Mary has always had a good relationship with her mother. At the university, she met a
friend whom she grew very fond of. Mary brought her new friend home to visit her
family. Mary’s mother really disliked her new friend. According to the balance theory,
what will Mary be motivated to do?
a. Mary will assimilate her mother’s feelings, thereby understanding her mother without
changing her attitude toward her or her new friend.
b. Mary will begin to believe her own judgment is flawed and compensate by
persuading herself that she really does make good judgments in her relationships.
c. Mary will notice how her own behaviour was influenced by her mother and conclude
that she really likes her friend better than she at first believed.
d. She will try to get her mother to change her attitude. If that is unsuccessful Mary will
change her attitude toward her mother, or toward her new friend.
Answer:
In an experiment, two groups drank the same brand of fruit juice. One group was
simply asked politely to try the drink. The second group was tricked into drinking the
juice. Suppose that, on average, the second group liked the juice more than the first.
How could the theory of cognitive dissonance be used to explain these results?
a. It may violate a person’s sense of consistency to be tricked; therefore members of the
second group concluded that they really drank the juice because it tasted good.
b. It may violate a person’s self-esteem to be tricked; consequently the juice was liked
more because the respondents had paid a higher psychological price.
c. People who were asked politely would have more anticipation and more expectations
of the juice than the other group. These pre-tasting conditions were harder to meet than
when people were simply tricked into tasting the juice.
d. It created a larger sense of cognitive dissonance in the first group because they agree
to taste the juice simply by being asked. They expressed their subconscious displeasure
by rating the drink more negatively than the second group.