Students of a college in Lucknow spent an hour on a very dull task of sorting beads. Each student was then asked to tell the next participant, waiting outside, that the task was very interesting. Half of them were paid Rs. 20 for saying this; the other half were paid Rs. 1,000. Three weeks later, a different researcher asked all of them to recall the task and rate how interesting they had really found it. The study was planned on the lines of a classic experiment on telling a lie for twenty dollars.
Why does the Rs. 1,000 group not change its view of the task?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → The large payment gave a reason for the lie, so they felt no cognitive dissonance.
Option (1) They did not identify with the researcher, so the two-step change never began. — Incorrect. Identification belongs to Mohsin's two-step concept, where a target copies a source. This study is about clashing thoughts.
Option (2) They felt strong cognitive dissonance, which made them hold on to their first view. — Incorrect. Dissonance pushes a person to change an attitude. This group did not feel dissonance at all.
Option (3) The large payment gave a reason for the lie, so they felt no cognitive dissonance. — Correct. Like the <strong>$20 group</strong>, they can say 'I told a lie because I was paid'. The payment explains the lie, so there is <strong>no cognitive dissonance</strong> and no need to change the attitude.
Option (4) Their attitude towards the task was extreme and central, so it resisted change. — Incorrect. Extreme and central attitudes are harder to change. But a view of a one-hour bead-sorting task is neither, so this does not explain the result.
NCERT (2026-27): “The $ 20 group did not experience cognitive dissonance. So, they did not change their attitude towards the experiment, and rated it as very boring. The cognitions in the $ 20 (No dissonance) group would be :” ““I told the waiting students that it was interesting”; “I told a lie because I was paid $ 20.”” |