Case Study: Distorting Our Likes And Dislikes

15. Maria is on a limited budget, and can only afford one album. She really likes two in particular: Frank Sinatra’s Greatest Hits and the soundtrack from the musical Wicked. When she gets to listen to the Frank Sinatra album, she cannot imagine why she ever considered the Wicked album. This is because…

The correct answer is letter C; Maria was motivated to reduce her post decision dissonance. This was found this answer on page 164. The topic is Distorting Our Likes and Dislikes, to summarize what this means is that in any decision-making, between two items, the chosen alternative is seldom entirely positive and the rejected alternative is entirely negative. This would be describing, postdecision dissonance. Postdecision Dissonance, is “ dissonance aroused after making a decision, typically reduced by enhancing the attractiveness of the chosen alternative item, and devaluating the rejected alternatives (p.164)” Research has been done on this topic, Jack Brehm (1956), presented an experiment where he asked women rate the attractiveness and desirability of several kinds of small appliances. “Each women was told that a reward for having participated in the survey, she could have one of the appliances as a gift. She was given a choice between two of the products she had rated as being equally attractive. After she made her

When Maria was presented with two album choices, she can only afford one of the albums. For her to make her decision and feel good about the decision, she needs to pick one and not have regret on the item she picked. Since she picked the Frank Sinatra’s Greatest Hits album, she is confident with her decision and is motivated to not second-guess her choice, so then she starts to reject the Wicked soundtrack by saying, “she cannot imagine why she ever considered the Wicked