Are Depressed Individuals More Susceptible to Cognitive Dissonance?

Compared to nondepressed individuals, depressed individuals generally show more guilt, more indecisiveness, and less ability to trivialize negative events, each of which predicts greater susceptibility to cognitive dissonance manipulations. Thus, depressed individuals may be more prone to dissonance effects. This study tested this depression-dissonance question using a roleplaying hypocrisy-induction paradigm in which highand low-depressed participants read about others who behaved inconsistently with their own ideals to high or low degree. Only highdepressed (and not low-depressed) participants showed the dissonance effect, that is, only highdepressed participants’ feelings of discomfort rose from lowto high-inconsistency conditions. Implications are discussed for psychotherapy.