Posted: July 26th, 2016

Why are approach-approach conflicts likely to create more cognitive dissonance than approach-avoidance conflicts?

Why are approach-approach conflicts likely to create more cognitive dissonance than approach-avoidance conflicts?
a. Approach-approach conflicts are very confusing to resolve intellectually, but approach-avoidance conflicts are typically simply resolved through behavioral aspects of reinforcement learning.
b. Approach-avoidance conflicts create inertia, thus past habits are employed without the need to resolve the cognitive inconsistencies.
c. Approach-avoidance conflicts result when the positive alternative simply overwhelms the negative, thus no cognitive dissonance exists under this condition.
d. Approach-approach conflicts result when both alternatives are positive. The selection of one requires the rejection of another, which creates a need for a cognitive explanation of why one positive choice was not selected.