Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue (한국심리학회지 : 문화 및 사회문제)

Korean Psychological Association of Culture and Social Issues (한국문화및사회문제심리학회)
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The Role of Attitude Importance in Cultural Variations of Cognitive Dissonance

인지부조화의 발생에서 문화 차이의 의미: 태도 중요도의 역할

  • Received : 2013.01.21
  • Accepted : 2013.02.27
  • Published : 2013.02.28

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Abstract

The recent findings proposed and found that people from Eastern cultures could experience strong cognitive dissonance only when certain conditions, such as other-related choices, normative attitudes, were fulfilled. Even though such interesting findings are intuitively convincing on the basis of common understanding of individualist and collectivist cultures, the psychological mechanisms underlying the cultural variations of cognitive dissonance remain untested. The present study examined the role of attitude importance in cognitive dissonance by using the free-choice paradigm. After completing a pretest of individualism-collectivism scales, 60 college students ranked their preference to 10 items of either beverage or traffic regulations twice. Between the two ranking tasks, they were asked to engage in behavioral selection among their 5th and 6th preferred items. They also rated the personal importance of the preference. The results showed that attitude importance was positively correlated with attitude change and it could play a major role in experiencing cognitive dissonance beyond cultural orientation and situational factors. The current findings were discussed in universality of cognitive dissonance across cultures.

인지부조화가 집단주의 문화에서는 약하게 발생한다는 기존의 주장과 달리, 최근에는 집단주의 문화권에서도 타인과 관련된 상황이나 규범준수와 관련된 상황 등과 같은 조건이 주어지면 인지부조화가 강하게 발생한다는 것이 확인되었다. 하지만 이러한 문화적 차이를 설명하는 심리적 요인이나 기제는 아직 규명되지 않았기에, 본 연구에서는 태도의 한 속성인 중요도(importance)가 주요한 역할을 수행할 것이라는 가설을 검증하였다. 이를 위해 개인의 문화적 가치성향이나 태도 대상의 특성을 초월하여, 인지부조화와 태도변화에서 태도 중요도의 영향을 확인하였다. 60명의 대학생을 대상으로 실험을 진행하였으며, 실험 4주 전에 개인주의-집단주의 수준을 측정하였다. 이후 기존 연구들에서 문화적인 차이가 확인된 개인적 선택, 타인을 위한 선택, 규범적 선택의 상황에서 자유선택 패러다임(free-choice paradigm)을 사용한 실험을 통해 인지부조화를 측정하였다. 그리고 마지막으로 각 선택대안에 대한 태도의 중요도를 측정하였다. 분석결과에 따르면, 선택의 상황에 상관없이 태도변화가 발견되어 인지부조화는 개인의 문화적 가치성향보다 태도 중요도에 의해 영향을 받는 것으로 확인되었다. 그리고 인지부조화의 문화 차이에 대한 기존 연구에서의 실질적인 적용한계를 이해하기 위해 본 연구결과가 가지는 함의를 논의하였다.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

이 논문은 2010년도 정부재원(교육과학기술부 인문사회연구역량강화사업비)으로 한국연구재단의 지원을 받아 연구되었음(NRF-2010-327-B00838).

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