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dissonance
Doing a favor for someone makes you like them.
The Ben Franklin effect demonstrates that helping someone actually increases your affection for them.
To resolve the cognitive dissonance between performing an act for someone and not liking them, your brain adjusts its attitude. You conclude that if you helped them, they must be worth your effort. Your actions often dictate your feelings rather than the other way around.
We justify our behavior by changing our internal beliefs.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Jecker & Landy, 1969
- What the check found
- Jecker & Landy (1969) is the foundational study for this effect. The provided reference material describes the phenomenon and theory accurately but omits the specific 1969 citation.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.