Heinrichs, Svenja (2024) Can Cognitive Dissonance Confrontation Lead to Behavior Change Regarding Dietary Choices? Bachelor thesis, Psychology.
![[img]](https://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/style/images/fileicons/text.png) |
Text
Thesis - Svenja Heinrichs.pdf Restricted to Repository staff only Download (742kB) |
Abstract
The adverse effects of climate change have worsened in recent years, a major contributor to this effect being dietary choice, specifically a diet containing animal products as opposed to being plant-based. However, individuals appear to morally disengage from such information which is linked to the continuation of consuming animal products. I explore whether cognitive dissonance confrontation may be successful in inducing a change in behavior, measured by whether participants choose to receive information on adopting a more plant based diet. I expected participants who portrayed more moral disengagement to be more susceptible to the manipulation than participants engaging in less cognitive dissonance. Five moral disengagement strategies (means-end justification, desensitization, denial of negative consequences, diffused responsibility, and reduced perceived choice) were measured and it was hypothesized that the presentation of an informative text outlining the adverse effects of the consumption of animal products may counteract moral disengagement, therefore rendering participants’ cognitive dissonance salient, prompting behavior change. This was hypothesized to be most effective in the case of denying the negative consequences of diet on climate change. To investigate the hypotheses, a logistic regression was performed. There was no significant impact observed when presenting participants with information regarding the adverse effects of dietary choices, regardless of the moral disengagement strategy, in eliciting a behavior change. Therefore, an exploratory analysis was performed linking moral disengagement strategies to authoritarianism.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Bachelor) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Muinos Trujillo, G. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | None [Bachelor Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 05 Apr 2024 07:45 |
| Last Modified: | 05 Apr 2024 07:45 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3281 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |