Suggestion of self-(in)coherence modulates cognitive dissonance

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0202204
• Publication Date: 2018-08-30T17:49:26Z
• Authors: Joshua Hagège; Mariam Chammat; Caroline Tandetnik; Lionel Naccache
• Keywords: Adult; Male; Sense of Coherence; [SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio]; Science; Memory, Episodic; Q; 05 social sciences; R; Models, Psychological; Choice Behavior; Young Adult; Linear Models; Medicine; Humans; Female; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences; Suggestion; Photic Stimulation; Research Article; Cognitive Dissonance

While cognitive dissonance is an influential concept of social psychology, its relations with consciousness and episodic memory remain strongly debated. We recently used the free-choice paradigm (FCP) to demonstrate the crucial role of conscious memory of previous choices on choice-induced preference change (CIPC). After choosing between two similarly rated items, subjects reevaluated chosen items as more attractive, and rejected items as less attractive. However such a CIPC was present exclusively for items that were correctly remembered as chosen or rejected during the choice stage, both in healthy controls and in amnesic patients. In the present work, we show that CIPC can be modulated by suggestive quotes promoting self-coherence or self-incoherence. In addition to the crucial role of memory of previous choices, we discovered that memory of the suggestive quotes was correlated to the modulation of CIPC. Taken together these results suggest that CIPC reflects a dynamic homeostatic regulation of self-coherence.