Cognitive Dissonance

An Introduction to Cognitive Dissonance Theory and an Overview of Current Perspectives on the Theory

Eddie Harmon-Jones & Judson Mills

Surveys how the original account of dissonance as any two inconsistent cognitions narrowed, after decades of revision, to cases where a person's own action threatens their sense of being a competent, moral, sensible self.

Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance

Leon Festinger & James M. Carlsmith

Participants paid a trivial $1 to lie about a boring task came to believe the lie more than those paid $20, because a weak external justification forces the mind to supply an internal one.

Assumes enough statistics to read a mean and a t-test; the design is simple and the paper is short