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“Gawronski and Strack recruited a host of social psychologists whose research interests touch upon people's search for consistency and in doing so explore topics well beyond the traditional domain of attitude change....Practicing researchers will want to read this book as will practitioners who can apply and build on its observations and insights. Graduate students in social psychology may find opportunity herein to draw on consistency theories to enliven their own research agendas.”

—Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology


“Covers a wide range of topics in cognitive consistency, making it a useful book for graduate students in social psychology.”

—Doody's Reviews


“With chapter authors including central figures in attitudes and social cognition, this book's ambitious scope is evident from initial chapters on consciousness, social neuroscience, connectionism, and fluency, to concluding ones on stereotyping, social justice, and group processes. In between, chapters cover such diverse subjects as identity, motivational fit, implicit ambivalence, and regret, among many others, organized into major subareas of social cognition and social psychology. This volume joins a very small handful of worthy successors to Festinger’s A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. More important, it resurrects, modernizes, and expands cognitive consistency theories in a way that makes a valuable contribution. I intend to use this book in my graduate course on social cognition. It should be useful in training the next generation of graduate students, while providing a novel and heuristic perspective for more advanced professionals. Gawronski and Strack have created an instant classic.”

—Donal E. Carlston, PhD, Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University


“From stellar editors and contributors, this superb volume draws attention to the significance of cognitive consistency as a basic principle of social information processing. Chapters cover a remarkable range: the significance of cognitive consistency for neural processes; connectionist models; different types of cognitive, motivational, implicit, and interpersonal processes; and connections to thinking, reasoning, decision making, and choice. This book is an absolute 'must' for researchers and doctoral students in psychology. It presents an intriguing, inviting, integrated perspective that bridges traditional subdisciplinary boundaries in psychology.”

—Gün R. Semin, PhD, Academy Professor, Royal Netherlands Academy for Arts and Sciences, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands


“Cognitive consistency has been an implicit if not explicit construct in social psychology for over 60 years, cutting across both motivated reasoning and automaticity and playing a role in all phases of information processing, including attention and comprehension, information retrieval, inference and judgment, and behavioral decision making. This volume—edited and written by well-known psychologists with perspectives ranging from cognitive neuroscience to interpersonal relations—testifies to the breadth of issues to which consistency principles are potentially relevant. In combination, the chapters provide a valuable resource for cognitive and social psychologists and graduate students.”

—Robert S. Wyer, Jr., PhD, Department of Marketing, Chinese University of Hong Kong

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Table of Contents

1. Cognitive Consistency as a Basic Principle of Social Information Processing, Bertram Gawronski and Fritz Strack I. Mental Representation2. Cognitive Conflict and Consciousness, Ezequiel Morsella, Pareezad Zarolia, and Adam Gazzaley

3. A Neuroscientific Perspective on Dissonance, Guided by the Action-Based Model, Eddie Harmon-Jones, Cindy Harmon-Jones, and David M. Amodio

4. Parallel Constraint Satisfaction as a Mechanism for Cognitive Consistency, Stephen J. Read and Dan Simon

II. Fluency and Fit

5. Fluency of Consistency: When Thoughts Fit Nicely and Flow Smoothly, Piotr Winkielman, David E. Huber, Liam Kavanagh, and Norbert Schwarz

6. Nonpropositional Consistency, Sascha Topolinski

7. Motivational Fit, E. Tory Higgins

III. Implicit Social Cognition

8. Balanced Identity Theory:Review of Evidence for Implicit Consistency in Social Cognition, Dario Cvencek, Anthony G. Greenwald, and Andrew N. Meltzoff

9. Implicit Ambivalence, Richard E. Petty, Pablo Briñol, and India Johnson

10. Discrepancies between Implicit and Explicit Attitudes, Prejudices, and Self-Esteem: A Model of Simultaneous Accessibility, Christian H. Jordan, Christine Logel, Steven J. Spencer, and Mark P. Zanna

IV. Thinking and Reasoning

11. Mental Models and Consistency, Philip N. Johnson-Laird

12. Cognitive Consistency as Means to an End: How Subjective Logic Affords Knowledge, Arie W. Kruglanski and Garriy Shteynberg

V. Decision Making and Choice

13. The Dynamics of Ambivalence: Evaluative Conflict in Attitudes and Decision Making, Frenk van Harreveld, Iris K. Schneider, Hannah Nohlen, and Joop van der Pligt

14. Self-Produced Decisional Conflict Due to Incorrect Metacognitions, Lottie Bullens, Jens Förster, Frenk van Harreveld, and Nira Liberman

15. Regret, Consistency, and Choice: An Opportunity × Mitigation Framework, Keith D. Markman and Denise R. Beike

16. Consistency as a Basis for Behavioral Interventions: Using Hypocrisy and Cognitive Dissonance to Motivate Behavior Change, Jeff Stone

VI. Interpersonal Processes

17. Balance Principles in Attitude Formation and Change: The Desire to Maintain Consistent Cognitions about People, Eva Walther and Rebecca Weil

18. Cognitive Consistency in Prejudice-Related Belief Systems: Integrating Old-Fashioned, Modern, Aversive, and Implicit Forms of Prejudice, Bertram Gawronski, Paula M. Brochu, Rajees Sritharan, and Fritz Strack

19. Stereotype Confirmation and Disconfirmation, Jeffrey W. Sherman, Thomas J. Allen, and Dario L. M. Sacchi

20. Adhering to Consistency Principles in an Unjust World: Implications for Sense-Making, Victim Blaming, and Justice Judgments, Kees van den Bos and Marjolein Maas

21. Interpersonal Cognitive Consistency and the Sharing of Cognition in Groups, Ernest S. Park, R. Scott Tindale, and Verlin B. Hinsz

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About the Editors

Bertram Gawronski, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. His research investigates the mental underpinnings and behavioral consequences of spontaneous and deliberate evaluations of objects, individuals, groups, and social issues. Dr. Gawronski's work has been recognized with honors including the Theoretical Innovation Prize from SPSP, the Career Trajectory Award from SESP, the Early Career Award from the International Social Cognition Network, the Early Researcher Award from the Ministry of Research and Innovation of Ontario, and the Charlotte-and-Karl-Bühler Award from the German Psychological Society. He is a fellow of APS, SESP, and SPSP.

• Author's website
• All titles by Bertram Gawronski

Fritz Strack, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at the University of Würzburg, Germany. His research focuses on reflective and impulsive processes underlying social behavior. Dr. Strack's work has been recognized with the Theoretical Innovation Prize from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the Thomas M. Ostrom Award from the Person Memory Interest Group for outstanding lifetime contributions to theory and research in the field of social cognition, and the Wilhelm Wundt Medal from the German Psychological Society for outstanding achievements in the field of psychology.

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Contributors

Thomas J. Allen, MA, Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, Davis, California

David M. Amodio, PhD, Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York

Denise R. Beike, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas

Pablo Briñol, PhD, Department of Psychology, Autonomous University of Madrid, Cantoblanco Campus, Madrid, Spain

Paula M. Brochu, MSc, Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, Social Science Centre, London, Ontario, Canada

Lottie Bullens, MSc, Department of Social Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Dario Cvencek, PhD, Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

Jens Förster, PhD, Department of Social Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Bertram Gawronski, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas

Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD, Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California

Anthony G. Greenwald, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

Cindy Harmon-Jones, MA, Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas

Eddie Harmon-Jones, PhD, Department of Psychology, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas

E. Tory Higgins, PhD, Department of Psychology, Columbia University, New York, New York

Verlin B. Hinsz, PhD, Department of Psychology, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota

David E. Huber, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California

India Johnson, MA, Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

Philip N. Johnson-Laird, PhD, Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey

Christian H. Jordan, PhD, Department of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Liam Kavanagh, MA, Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California

Arie W. Kruglanski, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland

Nira Liberman, PhD, Department of Psychology, Tel Aviv University, Israel

Christine Logel, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Marjolein Maas, PhD, Research Centre for Social Care, UMC St Radboud Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Keith D. Markman, PhD, Department of Psychology, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio

Andrew N. Meltzoff, PhD, Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

Ezequiel Morsella, PhD, Department of Psychology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California

Hannah Nohlen, MSc, Department of Social Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Ernest S. Park, PhD, Department of Psychology, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan

Richard E. Petty, PhD, Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

Stephen J. Read, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Dario L. M. Sacchi, MA, Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, Davis, California

Iris K. Schneider, MSc, Department of Social Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Norbert Schwarz, PhD, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Jeffrey W. Sherman, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, Davis, California

Garriy Shteynberg, PhD, Kellogg School of Management, Dispute Resolution Research Center, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois

Dan Simon, SJD, Gould School of Law and Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California

Steven J. Spencer, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Rajees Sritharan, BA, Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, Social Science Centre, London, Ontario, Canada

Jeff Stone, PhD, Psychology Department, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona

Fritz Strack, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Germany

R. Scott Tindale, PhD, Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Sascha Topolinski, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Germany

Kees van den Bos, PhD, Department of Social Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Joop van der Pligt, PhD, Department of Social Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Frenk van Harreveld, PhD, Department of Social Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Eva Walther, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Trier, Trier, Germany

Rebecca Weil, DiplPsych, Department of Psychology, University of Trier, Trier, Germany

Piotr Winkielman, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California

Mark P. Zanna, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Pareezad Zarolia, BA, Department of Psychology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California

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Audience

Researchers and graduate students in social and cognitive psychology.

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Course Use

May serve as a supplemental text in graduate-level courses.