The theory of cognitive dissonance and research derived from it have yielded a rich array of insights into the mind. One of the early experiments on the theory, the classic experiment by Festinger and Carlsmith (1959), has been subjected to criticisms by scientists. Rijsman has offered novel, insightful criticisms of this classic experiment. In this article, I address these criticisms by review...

We investigate to what extent genuine social preferences can explain observed other-regarding behavior. In a dictator game variant subjects can choose whether to learn about the consequences of their choice for the receiver. We find that a majority of subjects showing other-regarding behavior when the payoffs of the receiver are known, choose to ignore these consequences if possible. This behav...

We investigate to what extent genuine social preferences can explain observed other-regarding behavior. In a dictator game variant subjects can choose whether to learn about the consequences of their choice for the receiver. We find that a majority of subjects showing other-regarding behavior when the payoffs of the receiver are known, choose to ignore these consequences if possible. This behav...

Two effects interact to limit the validity of econometrics: cognitive dissonance and empirical arbitrariness. With cognitive dissonance, there is a psychological motivation inappropriately to manipulate what are seen as ‘wrong’ answers. This is possible when many data/modelling possibilities exist allowing econometricians ‘room to manoeuvre’ in their research strategies. Examples from investmen...

The issue of trust is important in recommender systems. These systems are typically described in terms of perceived reliability of the recommender coupled with a content quality perspective. However, most studies do not address the complete user context and psychological environment of a recommender system. This environment and context are described here by three primary areas of consideration,...

34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 The fundamental cognitive functions of music in the brain have not been known and evolutionary reasons for musical abilities seem mysterious. A recent hypothesis suggested that a fundamental function of music has been to help mitigating cognitive dissonances. A cognitive dissonance is “a ...

The aim of the present paper is to provide a general overview of cognitive dissonance theory. We begin by defining the basic concepts and summarizing the principal postulates of the theory. We point to possible classifications of the theory in terms of different forms of scholarship and types of theory by considering relevant philosophical and methodological assumptions. We go on to discuss the...

The relationship between aggression, pleasure and decision-making is analyzed applying a mediation model of structural equation modeling (SEM). The study explored it in two samples of similar age: young offenders and university students. A close relationship between aggression and pleasure was found in both populations. But, whereas in the case of university students, this congruence leads to a...

Even after years of improving the methodologies for organizational change in general and business process management (‘BPM’) in particular, BPM programs are still often unsuccessful. We argue that this is not due to the deficiencies in methodologies or the lack of skills of people implementing them, but due to the lack of a deeper theory-based understanding of what each phase of the BPM impleme...