About the Book
This volume provides an overview of recent research on the nature, causes, and consequences of cognitive consistency. In 22 chapters, leading scholars address the pivotal role of consistency principles at various levels of social information processing, ranging from microlevel to macro-level processes. The book's scope encompasses mental representation, processing fluency and motivational fit, implicit social cognition, thinking and reasoning, decision making and choice, and interpersonal processes. Key findings, emerging themes, and current directions in the field are explored, and important questions for future research identified.
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. Amodio4. 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 Schwarz6. Nonpropositional Consistency, Sascha Topolinski 7. Motivational Fit, E. Tory HigginsIII. Implicit Social Cognition8. 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 Johnson10. 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 Reasoning11. Mental Models and Consistency, Philip N. Johnson-Laird12. Cognitive Consistency as Means to an End: How Subjective Logic Affords Knowledge, Arie W. Kruglanski and Garriy ShteynbergV. Decision Making and Choice13. 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 StoneVI. Interpersonal Processes17. Balance Principles in Attitude Formation and Change: The Desire to Maintain Consistent Cognitions about People, Eva Walther and Rebecca Weil18. 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 Strack19. Stereotype Confirmation and Disconfirmation, Jeffrey W. Sherman, Thomas J. Allen, and Dario L. M. Sacchi20. 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
About the Author :
Edited by Bertram Gawronski, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, Canada; and Fritz Strack, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Wurzburg, Germany
Review :
"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 sub-areas 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, Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, USA "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 relation -- 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., Department of Marketing, Chinese University of Hong Kong, USA
