A Multilab Replication of the Induced-Compliance Paradigm of Cognitive Dissonance

David Vaidis (1) , Willem Sleegers (2) , Florian van Leeuwen (2) , Kenneth Demarree (3) , Bjørn Sætrevik (4) , Robert Ross (5) , Kathleen Schmidt , John Protzko (6) , Coby Morvinski (7) , Omid Ghasemi (8) , Andrew Roberts (5) , Jeff Stone (6) , Alexandre Bran (9) , Amélie Gourdon-Kanhukamwe (10) , Ceren Gunsoy (11) , Lisa Moussaoui (12) , Andrew Smith (13) , Armelle Nugier (14, 15) , Marie-Pierre Fayant (16) , Ali Al-Hoorie (17) , Obed Appiah (18) , Spencer Arbige (19) , Benjamin Aubert-Teillaud (9) , Olga Bialobrzeska (20) , Stéphanie Bordel (21) , Valerian Boudjemadi (22) , Hilmar Brohmer (23) , Quinn Cabooter , Mehdi Chahir , Ianis Chassang (22) , Armand Chatard (24) , Yu Yang Chou , Sungeun Chung , Mioara Cristea , Joséphine Daga , Gregory Depow , Olivier Desrichard , Dmitrii Dubrov , Thomas Evans , Séverine Falkowicz , Sylvain Ferreira , Tim Figureau , Valérie Fointiat , Théo Friedrich (22) , Anastasia Gashkova , Fabien Girandola , Marine Granjon (22) , Dmitry Grigoryev , Gul Gunaydin , Şevval Güzel , Mahsa Hazrati , Mai Helmy , Ayumi Ikeda , Michael Inzlicht , Sara Jaubert , Dauren Kasanov , Mohammad Mohsen Khoddami , Taenyun Kim , Kiyoshi Kiyokawa , Rabia Kodapanakkal , Alexandra Kosachenko , Kortney Maedge , John Mahaney , Marie-Amélie Martinie (24) , Vitor Mascheretti , Yoriko Matsuda , Maxime Mauduy , Nicolas Mauny , Armand Metzen , Eva Moreno-Bella , Miguel Moya , Kévin Nadarajah , Pegah Nejat , Elisabeth Norman , Irmak Olcaysoy Okten , Asil Özdoğru , Ceyda Ozer , Elena Padial-Rojas , Yuri Pavlov , Monica Perusquia-Hernandez , Dora Proost , Aleksandra Rabinovitch , Odile Rohmer (22) , Emre Selcuk , Cécile Sénémeaud , Yaniv Shani , Elena Shmeleva , Emmelie Simoens , Kaitlin Smith , Alain Somat , Hayeon Song , Fatih Sonmez , Lionel Souchet , John Taylor , Ilja van Beest , Nicolas Van der Linden , Steven Verheyen , Bruno Verschuere , Kevin Vezirian , Luc Vieira , Sera Wiechert , Guillermo Willis , Robin Wollast , Ji Xia , Yuki Yamada , Naoto Yoshimura , Daniel Priolo (25)

1 CLLE - Cognition, langues, langage, ergonomie
2 Tilburg University [Netherlands]
3 State University of New York [Buffalo]
4 UiB - University of Bergen
5 Macquarie University
6 UC Santa Barbara - University of California [Santa Barbara]
7 BGU - Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
8 University of New South Wales [Kensington]
9 LPS (URP_4471) - Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale : contextes et régulation
10 King‘s College London
11 URI - University of Rhode Island
12 UNIGE - Université de Genève = University of Geneva
13 Appalachian State University
14 LAPSCO - Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale et Cognitive
15 UCA - Université Clermont Auvergne
16 LPS - Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale
17 Jubail University College
18 UvA - University of Amsterdam [Amsterdam] = Universiteit van Amsterdam
19 Macquarie University [Sydney]
20 UW - University of Warsaw
21 PsyCAP - PsyCAP : Equipe Recherche Psychologie appliquée
22 LPC - Laboratoire de Psychologie des Cognitions
23 Graz University of Technology
24 CeRCA [Poitiers] - Centre de recherches sur la cognition et l'apprentissage [UMR 7295]
25 EPSYLON - Dynamique des capacités humaines et des conduites de santé

According to cognitive-dissonance theory, performing counterattitudinal behavior produces a state of dissonance that people are motivated to resolve, usually by changing their attitude to be in line with their behavior. One of the most popular experimental paradigms used to produce such attitude change is the induced-compliance paradigm. Despite its popularity, the replication crisis in social psychology and other fields, as well as methodological limitations associated with the paradigm, raise concerns about the robustness of classic studies in this literature. We therefore conducted a multilab constructive replication of the induced-compliance paradigm based on Croyle and Cooper (Experiment 1). In a total of 39 labs from 19 countries and 14 languages, participants ( N = 4,898) were assigned to one of three conditions: writing a counterattitudinal essay under high choice, writing a counterattitudinal essay under low choice, or writing a neutral essay under high choice. The primary analyses failed to support the core hypothesis: No significant difference in attitude was observed after writing a counterattitudinal essay under high choice compared with low choice. However, we did observe a significant difference in attitude after writing a counterattitudinal essay compared with writing a neutral essay. Secondary analyses revealed the pattern of results to be robust to data exclusions, lab variability, and attitude assessment. Additional exploratory analyses were conducted to test predictions from cognitive-dissonance theory. Overall, the results call into question whether the induced-compliance paradigm provides robust evidence for cognitive dissonance.

Mots clés: cognitive dissonance; induced compliance; counterattitudinal essay; attitude change; replication; multilabs

Domaines: Psychologie

David Vaidis, Willem Sleegers, Florian van Leeuwen, Kenneth Demarree, Bjørn Sætrevik, et al.. A Multilab Replication of the Induced-Compliance Paradigm of Cognitive Dissonance. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 2024, 7 (1), pp.1-26. ⟨10.1177/25152459231213375⟩. ⟨hal-04443137⟩