Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion · chapter 3 · id influence-c3-02-cognitive-dissonance-drives-co

“Cognitive dissonance drives consistency-seeking behavior: once people commit to a position, they experience psychological discomfort when confronted with contradictory information and will change attitudes to maintain consistency.”

contestedconfidence: high⚠ extracted by pipeline, re-audit pending

Receipts

Festinger & Carlsmith (1959), Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance, JPSP 58(2)DOI registry: valid

Participants paid $1 to lie about a boring task rated it more enjoyable than those paid $20, consistent with dissonance reduction. The $1 group needed to justify their lie internally.

ManyLabs (2024), Induced-Compliance Cognitive Dissonance Multilab, Advances in Methods and Practices 7(1)DOI registry: valid

39 laboratories across 19 countries (N=4,898) FAILED to replicate the induced-compliance cognitive dissonance effect. No significant attitude change under high vs. low choice conditions.

Vaidis et al. (2024), A Multi-Site Replication of Cognitive Dissonance, JPSPDOI registry: valid

The 2024 multilab effort represents the most rigorous test to date of the induced-compliance paradigm. The failure to replicate raises substantial concerns about the reliability of this foundational finding.

This claim is a stable, citable object. If you can falsify a verdict, tell us — corrections are loud here.