@article{7f25167fe28b421f88222f8ff6e180b1,
title = "Vicarious hypocrisy: Bolstering attitudes and taking action after exposure to a hypocritical ingroup member",
abstract = "Four studies tested the prediction that when highly identified group members observe another ingroup member behave hypocritically, they experience vicarious hypocrisy, which they reduce by bolstering their support for the ingroup hypocrite's message. Participants in Experiment 1 (N = 161) who witnessed a similar ingroup member act hypocritically about using sunscreen reported more positive attitudes toward using sunscreen than participants exposed to an outgroup hypocrite or to a dissimilar ingroup hypocrite. The effect of vicarious hypocrisy on attitude bolstering was attenuated in Experiment 2 (N = 68) when ingroup identity was affirmed. In Experiment 3 (N = 64), more highly identified participants acquired sunscreen when a fellow ingroup member's hypocrisy was attributed to high compared to low choice. Experiment 4 (N = 68) showed that a misattribution cue attenuated the effect of vicarious hypocrisy on sunscreen acquisition. The discussion focuses on the vicarious dissonance processes that motivate some observers to defend, rather than reject, a hypocritical ingroup member.",
keywords = "Attitudes, Cognitive dissonance, Hypocrisy, Self-affirmation, Vicarious",
author = "Focella, {Elizabeth S.} and Jeff Stone and Fernandez, {Nicholas C.} and Joel Cooper and Hogg, {Michael A.}",
note = "Funding Information: Participants were recruited in groups of three for a study on promoting health behaviors. After signing a consent form, a female experimenter explained that the researchers were ostensibly developing a public service announcement (PSA) for cancer prevention programs on college campuses. The project was ostensibly supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and was investigating the use of peer-education messages for promoting sun protection behaviors like sunscreen use. The experimenter explained that several students had recorded a message for the audio PSA and that the researchers now needed objective observers to evaluate the recordings. Participants were asked if they would listen to one of the recordings and provide an assessment (all said yes). Participants were then assigned to separate cubicles, where the experimenter, who was blind to the recording's content, randomly assigned them to a sound file, showed them how to use the audio program, and then left them alone to listen to it. Participants listened to the audio files on a Dell PC using Windows Media Player software. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2015. Copyright: Copyright 2015 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.",
year = "2016",
month = jan,
day = "1",
doi = "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2015.09.014",
language = "American English",
volume = "62",
pages = "89--102",
journal = "Journal of Experimental Social Psychology",
issn = "0022-1031",
publisher = "Academic Press Inc.",
}