Researchers forced participants who thought of themselves as just, fair people to cheat an innocent bystander. As a result, participants experienced the unpleasant conflict between their behavior and their self-image that psychologists refer to as ________________.

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BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

The prompt describes a situation where individuals who see themselves as just and fair experience a clash between their self-concept and their cheating behavior. This clash creates psychological discomfort, which is the essence of cognitive dissonance—the mental tension that arises from holding two or more contradictory beliefs, values, or attitudes, especially when behavior conflicts with self-image.

Option 1: deindividuation. This concept refers to a loss of self-awareness and sense of anonymity in group situations, which can lead to uninhibited behavior. It does not describe the internal conflict between self-image and action.

Option 2: cognitive dissonance. This option captures the internal psychological discomfort from acting in ways that contradict one’s moral self-concept, such as cheating while seeing oneself as fair.

Option 3: discrimination. While discrimination involves unfair treatment of people based on group membership, it does not describe the internal conflict between behavior and self-perception.

Option 4: obedience. Obedience concerns following authority or orders, not the tension between one’s own self-concept and one’s actions in a specific context.

In this scenario, the core idea is the uncomfortable inconsistency between how participants view themselves (just, fair) and what they did (cheated an innocent bystander). That mismatch is textbook cognitive dissonance, not deindividuation, discrimination, or obedience.

PSY 1001 (001) Final Exam/Exam 4

Researchers forced participants who thought of themselves as just, fair people to cheat an innocent bystander. As a result, participants experienced the unpleasant conflict between their behavior and their self-image that psychologists refer to as ________________.

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