Participants in a study freely engage in a behaviour that is contrary to their attitudes.This behaviour causes an increase in physiological arousal,but the experimenter tells the participants that this arousal is the product of a placebo pill they have taken.Under these conditions,we would not expect the participants to change their attitudes to be more in line with their behaviour,a finding that is most consistent with ______________ theory.

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This scenario is a classic example of the cognitive dissonance theory, which suggests that when there is a discrepancy between two conflicting cognitions (in this case, the behaviour and attitude), individuals experience psychological discomfort or dissonance. They are motivated to reduce this dissonance by changing their attitudes or behaviour to bring them into alignment. However, in this scenario, the experimenter has provided a plausible explanation for the arousal (the placebo pill), which reduces the dissonance and eliminates the need for attitude change. Therefore, cognitive dissonance theory predicts that attitude change would not occur in this situation.

Participants in a Study Freely Engage in a Behaviour That