Abstract
The notion that our past choices affect our future behavior is certainly one of the most influential concepts of social psychology since its first experimental report in the 50 s, and its initial theorization by Festinger within the “cognitive dissonance” framework. Using the free choice paradigm (FCP), it was shown that choosing between two similarly rated items made subjects reevaluate the chosen items as more attractive and the rejected items as less attractive. However, in 2010 a major work by Chen and Risen revealed a severe statistical flaw casting doubt on most previous studies. Izuma and colleagues (2010) supplemented the traditional FCP with original control conditions and concluded that the effect observed could not be solely attributed to this methodological flaw. In the present work we aimed at establishing the existence of genuine choice-induced preference change and characterizing this effect. To do so, we replicated Izuma et al.’ study and added a new important control condition which was absent from the original study. Moreover, we added a memory test in order to measure the possible relation between episodic memory of choices and observed behavioral effects. In two experiments we provide experimental evidence supporting genuine choice-induced preference change obtained with FCP. We also contribute to the understanding of the phenomenon by showing that choice-induced preference change effects are strongly correlated with episodic memory.
Highlights
In 1957, Festinger coined the expression ‘cognitive dissonance’ to convey a general theory postulating that individuals strive to decrease the discomfort generated by conflicting cognitions by modifying one’s cognitions [1]
Within the ‘Reminder’ group which is a direct adaptation of Izuma et al.’s procedure to our vacation destinations dataset, preference for destinations which were rejected in the Self-Difficult condition significantly decreased compared with rejected destinations in the Self-Easy condition (t(23) = 9.67, p,1028) or those rejected in the Computer condition (t(23) = 4.14, p,0.001). These comparisons were used before Chen and Risen’s criticism to assess the existence of preference change, but they do not allow controlling for the statistical artefact highlighted by Chen and Risen [18]
In this group, we observed a significant difference between the critical condition and the proper control condition: the spread was significantly larger for the Self-difficult/RCR sequence than for the PostEx-Choice/RRC sequence (t(23) = 5.1, p,0.001)
Summary
In 1957, Festinger coined the expression ‘cognitive dissonance’ to convey a general theory postulating that individuals strive to decrease the discomfort generated by conflicting cognitions by modifying one’s cognitions [1] Since this concept has intensively stimulated empirical and theoretical research in social psychology, and it has been so widely popularized that it is frequently used in mass-medias. Ranking and ratings are used interchangeably in FCP paradigms; from this point on we will use only the latter They are engaged in a forced-choice task during which they have to choose between two closely rated items. Choice-induced preference change is defined by a tendency to increase ratings of chosen items, and to decrease those of rejected items This ‘spreading of alternatives’, or ‘spread’, is the hallmark of the phenomenon, and has been considered as diagnostic of preference change. The literature contains two main and opposite types of theoretical accounts
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