It's The Luck Of Cognitive Dissonance

To study abroad, or to not study abroad; that is the question of all sophomores at this time of the year.  It’s an important decision, and a scary one.  To not know where I was going to be living next year, whether it be in Ireland or here in Worcester, is an intimidating thought.  I’ve always known that I wanted to study abroad, but the hardest decision was deciding whether I should go for a semester or a year.  I went through leaps and bounds to be allowed to go for the semester.  A year was just too long; I wouldn’t be able to run track junior year or see any of my friends or just simply be on the hill.  I was told that there was a small possibility I could go to University College Dublin for the first semester, but it wasn’t set in stone.  I told myself that if that opportunity became a concrete option, then that was what I would do.  If it wasn’t an option, I would just stick it out and go to Trinity College for the year because it was only a year long program.  I told myself that I’d rather go for the year than not go at all.

About a week before the deadline for study abroad, I was told that I definitely had the option to go to University College Dublin for the semester.  You’d think I’d be jumping up and down, excited I was granted the opportunity.  But now, the decision was completely up to me; not the study abroad office, only me.  I was accountable for the choice. I couldn’t blame it on anyone.  I had no external justification, meaning I couldn’t use the fact that I didn’t have a choice as an excuse to my friends or family or even to myself if I ended up making the wrong choice.  Similar to the cognitive dissonance affecting perception study that we looked at in class, having a high-choice compared to a low-choice on a difficult decision causes more of a need to reduce cognitive dissonance.  I found myself going back and forth on my decision multiple times throughout a single day.  Part of the day I could completely picture myself going for the year and then later, I would be completely convinced that the semester was the right choice.  I made pros and cons list, talked to my entire family, friend group, and study abroad ambassadors about it.  Every conversation made me more conflicted.

While this predicament lasted for a month and a half, and being especially difficult during the week before the deadline, we were learning about cognitive dissonance in class, specifically post-decision dissonance.  We learned that once you make a decision, you are going to focus more on the positive aspects of your choice and ignore the negative ones in order to reduce cognitive dissonance.  I couldn’t imagine myself ignoring any of the negative aspects, being that if I go for the year I won’t see my friends, family, or be able to run track; or if I go for the semester, I wouldn’t have the full experience, I wouldn’t be able to get an internship, and I wouldn’t be able to go to Trinity, the more prestigious of the two schools.  Both sets of cons seemed entirely equal.

The day before the deadline, I made the decision to apply to Trinity College for the year as my first choice.  Even though I made it only because I had to make a choice that day and I happened to talk to people right before who convinced me to go to Trinity, I almost immediately felt relieved once I finalized the decision.  I do believe that deep down it was the better choice, even if I did send my application only 5 minutes after deciding.  I think part of the reason why I applied so quickly after I made the final choice was because I knew that post-decision dissonance would occur once I submitted it, and it did.  The finality of my decision and the importance of it increased my need to reduce my cognitive dissonance.  Now, I more intensely believe the pros of my decision and ignore or dismiss the cons.  For example, I realize more now that I will be home for winter and summer break to see friends and family and I can always do track again senior year.  Even though I’ve always been interested in Trinity, hence why it was at least an option, I am now even more interested and more excited about it since I have made my decision.  The post-decision dissonance caused the spreading of my alternatives to occur because I am more confident that Trinity is the right choice and that UCD was the wrong one for me.

To take this a step further, I read a study about post-decision consonance done by Mao Wen and Harmen Oppewal.  The study investigated the effects of post-purchase reinforcement and inconsistent reinforcement on consumer satisfaction and perceived service quality.  Post-purchase reinforcement is when someone is given information that is consistent with their choice.  Choice-inconsistent reinforcement is when someone is given information that goes against their choice.  In the experiment they told a group of college students about university rankings that is consistent with their choice of university and told the other half of the group about university rankings that is inconsistent with their choice of university.  The results were that being reminded of negative aspects of their choice of school does not reduce the students’ consumer satisfaction or perceived service quality.  In fact, there was no effect at all.  Interestingly however, the students who were reminded of positive aspects of their choice of school had an improved consumer satisfaction and perceived service quality.

This study can be related back to my study abroad decision.  I feel relaxed knowing that it is likely, based on the results of this study, that even if I receive negative information on Trinity College or just about going for the year, it is not going to affect me.  But, if I receive positive information about Trinity College or about going for the year, it is only going to improve the confidence in my decision even more.  Maybe it's the luck of the Irish that I was able to make this decision and be happy about it, or maybe it was the luck of cognitive dissonance.

Kelly O'Halloran

Mao, Wen, and Harmen Oppewal. "Did I Choose the Right University? how Post-Purchase Information Affects Cognitive Dissonance, Satisfaction and Perceived Service Quality." Australasian Marketing Journal 18.1 (2010): 28-35. ProQuest.Web. 15 Nov. 2015.