Recall That Brehm (1956) Asked Women to Rate the Desirability

Recall that Brehm (1956) asked women to rate the desirability of a number of appliances and then allowed them to choose one of those appliances as a gift. Twenty minutes later, all women re-rated the same appliances, including the one they chose. Women tended to rate the alternatives they rejected lower than they had originally, and to rate their chosen appliance more positively. These results suggest that people __________.

A) seldom collect enough information before making decisions
B) reduce dissonance by overestimating differences between chosen and unchosen alternatives
C) are more likely to experience cognitive dissonance when decisions are irrevocable
D) experience more dissonance when their decisions implicate their self-concepts as rational and reasonable