Editing Cognitive dissonance (section)

=== Social behavior ===
Cognitive dissonance is used to promote social behaviours considered positive, such as increased [[condom]] use.<ref name="StoneAronsonCrainWinslowFried1994">{{cite journal | vauthors = Stone J, Aronson E, Crain AL, Winslow MP, Fried CB | year = 1994 | title = Inducing hypocrisy as a means for encouraging young adults to use condoms | journal = Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin | volume = 20 | issue = 1| pages = 116–128 | doi=10.1177/0146167294201012| s2cid = 145324262 }}</ref> Other studies indicate that cognitive dissonance can be used to encourage people to act pro-socially, such as campaigns against public littering,<ref name="FriedAronson1995">{{cite journal | vauthors = Fried CB, Aronson E | year = 1995 | title = Hypocrisy, misattribution, and dissonance reduction | journal = Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin | volume = 21 | issue = 9| pages = 925–933 | doi=10.1177/0146167295219007| s2cid = 144075668 }}</ref> campaigns against racial [[prejudice]],<ref name="SonHingLiZanna2002">{{cite journal | vauthors = Hing LS, Li W, Zanna MP | year = 2002 | title = Inducing Hypocrisy to Reduce Prejudicial Responses Among Aversive Racists | journal = Journal of Experimental Social Psychology | volume = 38 | pages = 71–78 | doi=10.1006/jesp.2001.1484| s2cid = 144660031 }}</ref> and compliance with anti-speeding campaigns.<ref name="Fointiat2004">{{cite journal | vauthors = Fointiat V | year = 2004 | title = I Know What I have to Do, but. . ." When Hypocrisy Leads to Behavioral Change | doi = 10.2224/sbp.2004.32.8.741 | journal = Social Behavior and Personality | volume = 32 | issue = 8| pages = 741–746 }}</ref> The theory can also be used to explain reasons for donating to charity.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1007/s11238-014-9469-5|title=Honestly, why are you donating money to charity? An experimental study about self-awareness in status-seeking behavior|journal=Theory and Decision|volume=79|issue=3|pages=493–515|year=2015| vauthors = Kataria M, Regner T |hdl=10419/70167|s2cid=16832786 |hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Nyborg K |title=I don't want to hear about it: Rational ignorance among duty-oriented consumers |journal=Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization |date=August 2011 |volume=79 |issue=3 |pages=263–274 |doi=10.1016/j.jebo.2011.02.004 |url=https://www.sv.uio.no/econ/english/research/unpublished-works/working-papers/pdf-files/2008/Memo-15-2008.pdf }}</ref>
Cognitive dissonance can be applied in social areas such as racism and racial hatred. Acharya of Stanford, Blackwell and Sen of Harvard state cognitive dissonance increases when an individual commits an act of violence toward someone from a different ethnic or racial group and decreases when the individual does not commit any such act of violence. Research from Acharya, Blackwell and Sen shows that individuals committing violence against members of another group develop hostile attitudes towards their victims as a way of minimizing cognitive dissonance. Importantly, the hostile attitudes may persist even after the violence itself declines (Acharya, Blackwell, and Sen, 2015). The application provides a social psychological basis for the constructivist viewpoint that ethnic and racial divisions can be socially or individually constructed, possibly from acts of violence (Fearon and Laitin, 2000). Their framework speaks to this possibility by showing how violent actions by individuals can affect individual attitudes, either ethnic or racial animosity (Acharya, Blackwell, and Sen, 2015).