The effects of commitment and cognitive dissonance techniques on attitude, attitude strength and reasoning

The objective of this study is to highlight the impact of the techniques of commitment and dissonance on attitude, attitude strength, and the reasoning associated with attitude change. The participants were placed in an experimental situation based on commitment or dissonance paradigm or in a control condition, in order to modify their relationship to insect-based food. The attitude (instrumental, affective, and global) and the attitude strength (ambivalence, importance, extremity, certainty, and intensity) were measured. The speeches collected from the experimental instructions were analyzed with TROPES and the basic cognitive schemas method. The results reveal that the techniques: (1) change attitude; (2) cause a decrease of certainty and of the extremity; (3) cause an increase in the importance and intensity associated with attitude. The analysis of the discourses reveals that reasoning produced are conflicting and are anchored in a descriptive and evaluative register. Only the frequency of the evaluative operators is associated with the attitude, which suggests that the change could be related to this type of reasoning. (C) 2019 Societe Francaise de Psychologie. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.