Jessica said she would never work for less than $12 an hour, but then she got a job looking after children in the afternoon, and it pays only $6 an hour. Now she says that money isn't as important as enjoying her work. This is an example of:

A. mere exposure effect.
B. cognitive dissonance.
C. situational attribution.
D. availability heuristic.

Question

Jessica said she would never work for less than $12 an hour, but then she got a job looking after children in the afternoon, and it pays only $6 an hour. Now she says that money isn't as important as enjoying her work. This is an example of:

 		A.	mere exposure effect.
 		B.	cognitive dissonance.
 		C.	situational attribution.
 		D.	availability heuristic.

anonymous · Answer

Have you heard of "cognitive dissonance"? 

It's a little complicated, 
but I'll try to give you a simple explanation. 

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE is where we're in a situation where we are faced with two things that cannot exist, at the same time. It's a problem.
And so, we change our way of thinking, in order to solve that problem. 

Take a look at the paragraph again. 

There are two things, in this paragraph, that just cannot exist at the same time, 
because they contradict one another. 

1. Jessica said she would never work for less than $12 an hour. 
2. Jessica is now working for only $6 an hour. 

You see how those two things totally contradict one another? 
They can't both exist at the same time. 

SO, 
what Jessica did was she changed her mind, 
by saying that money isn't important, 
and that she's okay with working for only $6 an hour. 

That's COGNITIVE DISSONANCE.