CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 2,959Social and Intergroup PsychologyPsychology of Social InfluenceBehavioral Health and Interventions

Self-perception: An alternative interpretation of cognitive dissonance phenomena.

Bem, Daryl J.·1967·Psychological Review
DOI 10.1037/h0024835
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

A theory of self-perception is proposed to provide an alternative interpretation for several of the major phenomena embraced by Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance and to explicate some of the secondary patterns of data that have appeared in dissonance experiments. It is suggested that the attitude statements which comprise the major dependent variables in dissonance experiments may be regarded as interpersonal judgments in which the observer and the observed happen to be the same individual and that it is unnecessary to postulate an aversive motivational drive toward consistency to account for the attitude change phenomena observed. Supporting experiments are presented, and metatheoretical contrasts between the "radical " behavioral approach utilized and the phenomenological approach typified by dissonance theory are discussed.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1037/h0024835

Cites

35 of 35 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Bem (1967) found that observers informed about the procedures used in Festinger & Carlsmith (1959) could accurately estimate how the participants had completed the evaluative ratings in the original study.

    “Bem (1967) found that, based on this procedural information alone, observers could accurately estimate how the participants had completed the evaluative ratings in the original study.”

    From Unawareness of Attitudes, Their Environmental Causes, and Their Behavioral Effects (2025) · cites this paper as Bem 1967

  • Jones, Davis, and Gergen (1961) and Bem (1967) are rare instances in the literature of failures to find the correspondence bias.

    “Consistent with this analysis are two studies that stand out in the literature as rare instances of failures to find the correspondence bias.”

    From Suspicion and Dispositional Inference (1993) · cites this paper as Bem's (1967)

  • Bem (1967) found that subjects in the low-incentive condition inferred a more positive real attitude toward the task than other subjects.

    “Not only did the subjects in the low-incentive condition infer a more positive “real” attitude toward the task than the other subjects”

    From Suspicion and Dispositional Inference (1993) · cites this paper as Bem's (1967)

  • Bem (1967) found that subjects in the high-incentive condition made inferences that did not differ from those of control subjects who did not hear the target express any attitude toward the task.

    “but the subjects in the high-incentive condition made inferences that did not differ from those of control subjects who did not hear the target express any attitude toward the task.”

    From Suspicion and Dispositional Inference (1993) · cites this paper as Bem's (1967)

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 36 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Bem, D. J.
Affiliations
Carnegie Mellon University (US)
Corresponding author
Bem, Daryl J.
Venue
Psychological Review
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Published
1967
Volume
74
Issue
3
Pages
183-200
ISSN
  • 0033-295X (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-1471
DOI
10.1037/h0024835
OpenAlex
W2138612226
Cited by
2,959
References
36
Citations by year
2026: 56 · 2025: 88 · 2024: 85 · 2023: 69 · 2022: 66 · 2021: 101 · 2020: 95 · 2019: 114 · 2018: 119 · 2017: 97 · 2016: 98 · 2015: 94 · 2014: 84 · 2013: 105 · 2012: 86
FWCI
140.06
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Psychological Review (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Psychology of Social Influence
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
Keywords
self-perception, cognitive dissonance, attitude change, interpersonal judgment, self-consistency, phenomenological method, behavioral approach, metatheory
MeSH terms
Behavior, Humans, Perception, Self Concept

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review