Meera is fond of her colleague Anjali, and Anjali likes Meera too. Anjali strongly supports organic farming, but Meera thinks organic farming is a waste of money. Both of them know about this difference. Meera's cousin Suresh has read that smoking causes lung cancer, which is fatal. Yet he smokes every day. Holding both ideas together makes him uneasy. He often finds himself thinking about it while lighting a cigarette.
Why, according to Fritz Heider, is one of the attitudes in Meera's situation likely to change?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Imbalance is logically uncomfortable, so the attitude changes towards balance
Option (1) Imbalance is logically uncomfortable, so the attitude changes towards balance — Correct. Heider's balance idea uses the P-O-X triangle. Meera likes Anjali (P-O positive), Anjali likes organic farming (O-X positive), but Meera dislikes it (P-X negative). Two positives and one negative mean imbalance, which is uncomfortable, so one attitude moves towards balance.
Option (2) She identifies with Anjali and imitates Anjali's changed behaviour — Incorrect. This is the two-step concept of S.M. Mohsin. It needs the source to change her own behaviour first; the passage shows no change by Anjali.
Option (3) Two of her cognitions are dissonant, so one changes towards consonance — Incorrect. This is Leon Festinger's idea of cognitive dissonance. It deals with two cognitions inside one person's attitude.
Option (4) Her view of organic farming is still in the formative stage, like an opinion — Incorrect. Opinions in the formative stage do change more easily. But this is a general point about attitude change, not Heider's reason, which is the imbalance in the triangle.
NCERT (2026-27): “Process of Attitude Change … “The basic idea is that an attitude changes if there is a state of imbalance between the P-O attitude, O-X attitude, and P-X attitude. This is because imbalance is logically uncomfortable. Therefore, the attitude changes in the direction of balance.” “Imbalance is found when (i) all three sides of the P-O-X triangle are negative, or (ii) two sides are positive, and one side is negative. Balance is found when (i) all three sides are positive, or (ii) two sides are negative, and one side is positive.” |