Free choice and cognitive dissonance revisited: Choosing "lesser evils" versus "greater goods"

Traditional dissonance theory predicts a spreading apart of chosen and reje cted alternatives following a decision. More recent constraint satisfaction models of this classic free-choice paradigm suggest that these effects may vary with the overall attractiveness of the choice options. This predictio n was tested with 13-year-olds choosing among posters. As in prior computer simulations, a difficult choice between generally less desirable alternati ves produced a large increase in participants' evaluations of the chosen al ternative whereas a difficult choice between generally more desirable alter natives produced a large decrease in evaluations of the rejected alternativ e The results were discussed in terms of the relative amounts of dissonance created in the various conditions. The utility of the consonance constrain t satisfaction model that generated these novel predictions was stressed.