a Princeton University.
J Soc Psychol. 2019;159(1):112-117. doi: 10.1080/00224545.2018.1465023. Epub 2018 May 22.
The field of experimental social psychology is appropriately interested in using novel theoretical approaches to implement change in the social world. In the current study, we extended cognitive dissonance theory by creating a new framework of social influence: imagined vicarious dissonance. We used the framework to influence attitudes on an important and controversial political attitude: U.S. citizens' support for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). 36 Republicans and 84 Democrats were asked to imagine fellow Republicans and Democrats, respectively, making attitude discrepant statements under high and low choice conditions about support for the ACA. The data showed that vicarious dissonance, established by imagining a group member make a counterattitudinal speech under high-choice conditions (as compared to low-choice conditions), resulted in greater support for the Act by Republicans and marginally diminished support by Democrats. The results suggest a promising role for the application of vicarious dissonance theory to relevant societal issues and for further understanding the relationship of dissonance and people's identification with their social groups.
实验社会心理学领域恰当地关注利用新颖的理论方法来改变社会世界。在当前的研究中，我们通过创建一个新的社会影响框架——想象替代性失调，扩展了认知失调理论。我们利用这一框架来影响人们对一个重要且有争议的政治态度的看法：美国公民对《平价医疗法案》（ACA）的支持。我们要求 36 名共和党人和 84 名民主党人分别想象各自党派的成员在高选择条件和低选择条件下发表态度不一致的声明，以此来支持 ACA。数据表明，通过想象一个群体成员在高选择条件下（与低选择条件相比）发表反态度言论，替代性失调得到确立，这导致共和党人对该法案的支持增加，而民主党人的支持略有减少。研究结果表明，替代性失调理论在相关社会问题上的应用以及进一步理解失调与人们对其社会群体的认同之间的关系具有广阔的应用前景。
