Chapter 5
Summary
This chapter discusses Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance. Slater describes some of Festinger’s experiments including his observation of those who believed a flood would come on December 21, 1954 and an experiment involving having people lie for either $1 or $20. A large portion of the chapter focuses on mother named Linda Santo whose daughter she claims to be a saint that God has chosen to be a victim soul that takes on the pain of others. Her observations and interviews with Linda Santo bring up more questions about cognitive dissonance.
Discussion
The lines defined in this chapter are a little fuzzier than the lines drawn in other chapters. Slater presents a really interesting topic and manages to raise more questions about it by the end of the chapter. Near the end she raises the question, “Did Festinger ever consider how our justifications are to save not only ourselves, but others too?” This is a good question, and I think there are a lot more experiments that could be done that might help us to better understand the theory of cognitive dissonance.
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