Before Jackie left for college, she told her friend Lisa that she thought sororities were filled with snobs and that she would never consider joining one. But during Jackie's first week on campus, she was approached by a sorority member who invited her to a social function and encouraged her to pledge. After Jackie attended the party, she told Lisa, "Sororities do a lot of good things for the community. They're really service organizations." Jackie's change in attitude to match her behavior relates to which of the following concepts?

A. cognitive dissonance

B. self-serving bias

C. out-group homogeneity effect

D. diffusion of responsibility

a) cognitive dissonance

Explanation:

In psychology, the term cognitive dissonance refers to the mental discomfort experienced by a person who holds contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values.

This discomfort is triggered by a situation in which a person's belief is contradicted by new evidence perceived by the person so the person will try to find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort.

In this example, Jackie thought sororities were filled with snobs, however during her first year in campus she was approached by a sorority member who invited her to a social function.

We can see that Jackie's beliefs about sororities were contradicted by the new evidence she perceived when she attended the party, this made her feel cognitive dissonance and her way to resolve the contradiction was to conclude that sororities do a lot of good things for the community.

Thus, Jackie's change in attitude to match her behavior relates to cognitive dissonance.