Is There Any “Free” Choice?

TLDR

The study discusses implications for cognitive dissonance theory. Four experiments demonstrate that individuals justify their choices to resolve doubts about culturally sanctioned self-aspects, with Japanese participants showing this only when self-relevant others are primed, while European Americans justify choices regardless of social cues.

Abstract

Four experiments provided support for the hypothesis that upon making a choice, individuals justify their choice in order to eliminate doubts about culturally sanctioned aspects of the self, namely, competence and efficacy in North America and positive appraisal by other people in Japan. Japanese participants justified their choice (by increasing liking for chosen items and decreasing liking for rejected items) in the standard free-choice dissonance paradigm only when self-relevant others were primed, either by questionnaires (Studies 1-3) or by incidental exposure to schematic faces (Study 4). In the absence of these social cues, Japanese participants showed no dissonance effect. In contrast, European Americans justified their choices regardless of the social-cue manipulations. Implications for cognitive dissonance theory are discussed.