How Cognitive Dissonance and Social Priming Influenced the 2020 Election Research Paper

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Social Psychology in the News: Social Psychology Concepts

Today, the world in general and the United States in particular are troubled places, with multiple crises confronting political leaders and citizens at every level, including most especially the ongoing Covid-19 virus pandemic, a weakened national economy, racial unrest and increasing polarization of the American electorate following the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. This dramatic polarization has been more severe than at any time in the nation’s history with the exception of the Civil War, and this process continues even after the results of the presidential election were called by the mainstream media. This situation is due in large part to the cognitive dissonance that losing voters experienced and the manner in which voters were socially primed for this historic electoral confrontation. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review and analysis to define and describe how these two social psychology concepts have been reflected in the news in recent weeks, followed by a summary of the research and important findings concerning cognitive dissonance and social priming in the paper’s conclusion.

Cognitive dissonance: How cognitive dissonance affects losing voters

Identification and definition of the concept:

In general, cognitive dissonance occurs when people are confronted with events that challenge their long-held beliefs and views about the world around them. In many cases, people simply ignore or discount anomalous events as being isolated incidents which are irrelevant to their worldviews. This process plays out unconsciously and operates to help people navigate their way through life while providing the basis for informed decision making. Even when the evidence mounts beyond refutation, some people may resist integrating this new information into their thinking since it means that they have been fundamentally wrong about something important to them all along. This tendency means that many voters tend to remain loyal to the same political party all their lives unless and until something sufficient dramatic occurs that compels them to reconsider their choices (Bølstad et al., 2013).

Indeed, a growing body of evidence supports the concept of cognitive dissonance which indicates that maintaining a stable, positive self-image is among the most influential determinants of human behavior (Aronson et al., 2019). In many ways, the concept of cognitive dissonance just makes common sense. After all, the world is frequently a confusing and dangerous place, and people must have some mental schema available to help them quickly respond to new threats and opportunities without having to mentally calculate all of the possible antecedents.

Although an infinite number of factors can cause cognitive dissonance, those that place individual self-esteem and self-worth in question are among the most powerful influences on subsequent behaviors (Aronson et al., 2019).

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Even then many people are reluctant to completely abandon the worldview that has been forged over a lifetime, but the fact that many die-hard Republicans “held their nose” and voted for the Democratic Party confirms the results of a study by McGregor (2013) that certain behaviors such as the act of voting can induce radical changes in thinking that can help reduce the negative effects of cognitive dissonance by aligning individual thought processes with reality.

How the concept…

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…this type of social priming can be readily identified in mainstream media headlines such as the following:

· “'Rigged election': Donald Trump's long history of polls fraud claims” (Economic Times, November 5, 2020).

· “Misinformation by a thousand cuts: Varied rigged election claims circulate” (NBC News, November 13, 2020).

· “In Torrent of Falsehoods, Trump Claims Election Is Being Stolen” (The New York Times, November 15, 2020).

Indeed, there have been dozens more headlines that mirror the above entries which clearly reflect President Trump’s attempts to “set the stage” for his contesting a potential loss by dropping first subtle hints that the election would be rigged and then escalating his rhetoric to condemn the entire electoral process. In sum, a large segment of the American electorate has been socially primed to reject the results of a legitimate election through the social priming cues relentlessly delivered by President Trump over the past several months.

Conclusion

Social psychologists have their hands full at present trying to make sense of the political shenanigans that are roiling the nation, but the research was consistent in showing that both the concepts of cognitive dissonance and social priming have emerged as two important constructs that have played a role in the pre- and post- presidential election outcomes. Today, Americans are fighting each other in the streets because Trump supporters cannot believe they lost due in large part to the social priming propaganda campaign that was been waged by the White House in the months leading up to the November 3 election. In the final analysis, it is reasonable….....

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