Cognitive dissonance – the uncomfortable mental state of inconsistent beliefs – not only occurs with deeply ingrained beliefs but can also affect our attitudes in many situations, as demonstrated in studies where people are shown things they should find pleasing and then told about something unpleasant. Festinger devised experiments where students were given extremely tedious homework assignments and then told that the work was fun and engaging. Some participants were asked to recommend the assignment to a friend, creating dissonance between what they said and what they felt.
Half of these were paged $1 to tell this story, and half $20 to do it. As Festinger predicted those who paid $1 recommended it in more favorable terms than those who paid $2. The higher paid felt the dissonance less, and to reduce it had no problem changing their evaluation of the task so that they could justify doing it. The larger payment gave them an excuse to do the work, and so reduced the feeling of dissonance. Those who got $20 did not feel the same need to provide a justification for having done something that was already justified.
