In Festinger and Carlsmith's experiment, what did the participants receive for telling others that the experiment was interesting?

Positive consequence

The correct answer is option 2: Positive consequence

In Festinger and Carlsmith's classic 1959 experiment on cognitive dissonance, participants were asked to perform a boring task and then tell the next participant that the task was interesting.

Participants were randomly paid either $1 or $20 to lie. The key finding was:

• Those paid $1 experienced more cognitive dissonance because they didn’t have a sufficient external justification for lying.

• To resolve this dissonance, many changed their internal attitude and came to believe the task was more interesting than it actually was.

So, the act of telling others that the experiment was interesting was associated with receiving a positive consequence (money), even though the amount impacted how much their attitudes changed.