JOULE Robert Vincent

This book presents several fields of research from current social psychology, chosen for their existing applications or for their potential for application: their applicability. Eleven chapters make up this book. After a chapter on epistemological reflection, areas such as individual behavior within a group . prediction of what people are likely to do based on what they say . strategies for bringing about behavioral change . mechanisms of aggression . decision making, its biases, pitfalls and limitations . the determinants of jury judgments in the judicial context . the contribution of psychology to prevention in health-related behaviours . the influence of attributions in education . the psychologist's expertise and action strategies to promote professional integration . finally, the link between research and the economic world. The authors, all of whom are recognized for their competence in their field of basic research, have undertaken the exercise of examining the applications of the research they are conducting, and in all cases have noted the strong potential for applicability of the research that has emerged from their laboratories. At the same time, however, they all note that even though the applications are numerous, several avenues remain unexplored and deserve to be developed further in order to serve the action. In the end, all the authors are truly optimistic and propose real avenues for action that could be of use to both the psychologist in training and the experienced psychologist who is already working but is looking for ways to develop solutions to the problems he or she faces in his or her daily work.

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Education is a key issue for the future of a country and schools are often seen as reproducing or reinforcing social inequalities. Conation covers several domains such as motivation, self-esteem as well as planning and decision making. School is a privileged place for the study of the relations between conation and cognition and of the interactions between psychosocial and conative variables, in the context of complex behaviors such as learning. The objective is thus to allow the school institution to better consider the functioning of the subject: to act on the conative to make the cognitive more efficient and, why not, to integrate the notion of well-being in the educational concerns of the school.

This digital edition was made from a physical medium, sometimes old, kept in the legal deposit of the National Library of France, in accordance with Law No. 2012-287 of March 1, 2012 on the exploitation of unavailable Books of the twentieth century.

Driven, in particular, by the rise of experimental economics, the recent literature has highlighted a wide range of situations in which monetary incentives fail to steer behavior in the desired direction. This observation leads to a search for alternative institutional mechanisms that can replace monetary incentives. This article reviews the work inspired by the social psychology of commitment in order to develop non-monetary mechanisms that can affect behavior. This work studies a particular commitment procedure: a truth-telling oath. This procedure has been successfully applied to (1) the problem of hypothetical bias in the revelation of preferences for non-market goods, (2) coordination failures, and (3) the propensity to tell the truth. Taken together, this work confirms the ability of commitment mechanisms to guide the design of non-monetary institutions that can effectively guide economic behavior.

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The number of websites containing persuasive serious games and advergames has increased over the past several years, but their immediate and delayed effects on behaviour are still not well understood. The present field experiment (n=388, varied socio-professional groups) demonstrates that interactivity linked to this type of website provokes positive effects on immediate behaviour (purchases of energy-saving light bulbs –ESLBs– ) in a “real setting”. It further affected the behaviour (installation of ESLBs at home), the memorization of the website's arguments, gains in knowledge, attitude, and other judgments regarding ESLBs, when measured two weeks later. The digital signature of a commitment to perform an expected behaviour via a Web page also provokes positive behavioural effects. This can accumulate through the effects of interactivity. We close with a discussion of the possible psychological processes involved, theoretical and practical implications and limitations as well as new perspectives for advertising and advergames research.

This dictionary brings together all the reflections, conceptual constructions and courses of action that the state of the planet and the functioning of the Biosphere can inspire. It thus embraces a very broad spectrum of disciplines and collaborators, making the most of the hybridization, specific to ecological thinking, of natural and social domains interpreted in the light of the hard sciences and the humanities. Through 357 articles written by 260 authors, the reader will find developments on key concepts, on key books or on now classic authors. Because ecological thought embraces a new and threatening scale of disturbances inflicted on the environment, reexamining the place of man within nature, and because the field of ecology is far from being univocal, this dictionary aims to be critical, historical and prospective, not hesitating to propose contradictory points of view on central notions.

Driven, in particular, by the rise of experimental economics, the recent literature has highlighted a wide range of situations in which monetary incentives fail to steer behavior in the desired direction. This observation leads to a search for alternative institutional mechanisms that can replace monetary incentives. This article reviews the work inspired by the social psychology of commitment in order to develop non-monetary mechanisms that can affect behavior. This work studies a particular commitment procedure: a truth-telling oath. This procedure has been successfully applied to 1/ the problem of hypothetical bias in the revelation of preferences for non-market goods, 2/ coordination failures, and 3/ the propensity to tell the truth. Taken together, this work confirms the ability of commitment mechanisms to guide the design of non-monetary institutions capable of effectively guiding economic behavior.

In this paper, we propose a behavioral approach to determine the extent to which the consumer/citizen distinction affects interpretations of monetary values in stated preferences methods. We perform a field experiment dealing with air pollution, where some (randomly selected) subjects are given the opportunity to behave politically by signing a petition for environmental protection prior to stating their private preferences in a standard contingent valuation exercise. We show that signing has the potential to influence respondents' willingness to pay values. Results indicate that even market-like situations are not immune to citizen behavior.

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Recycling represents a serious challenge. If sustainability is socially desirable, actual pro-environmental behaviors are difficult to promote. It seems that making people aware of sustainability is not enough to make them change their behaviors. Induced hypocrisy (Aronson et al., 1991. Fointiat 2004) is a sequential procedure in which an individual is made aware of the gap between normative standard AND his/her own behaviors (that is, between what I say and what I have really do). The recall of the counter-normative behaviors arouses an uncomfortable state (i.e., dissonance, Festinger, 1957) that must be reduced. The main route of reduction is the behavioral change in line with normative standard. Fried (1998) demonstrated that being identified with the transgressions decreases the hypocrisy procedure efficacy, suggesting identified participants are not experiencing dissonance. In a 2 (Norm salience: anonymous vs. identified) X 2 (Transgression recall: anonymous vs. identified) inter-subject experiment, we put into the test the hypothesis that identified participants actually experienced dissonance. But they should use an alternate means of reduction, such as trivialization (Simon et al., 1994), that is the devaluation of the importance of the behavior. Participants argued anonymously (or after declining their identity) a pro-environmental normative proposition (normative salience). Then they were made aware (transgression recall) of their own counter-normative: each of them completed a transgression questionnaire anonymously vs. publicly (i.e. indicating on the first page their identity). Measures were administered: participants were asked to take part in a long survey (behavioral measure) about environment and to complete a questionnaire (trivialization measure). First of all the results show that publicly recalling transgressions decreases hypocritical effect (behavior change). The results also show that participants publicly recalling their transgressions are more willing to use trivialization, suggesting they are experiencing dissonance. Thus, it seems that even when identified with their counter-normative behaviors, participants experienced dissonance, but the reduction cannot use the behavioral means. They could use trivialization for reducing their intra-psychic conflict. But from an applied point of view it should be counterproductive: publicizing the transgressions (publicly connecting somebody with his/her transgression) prove to be unsuccessful. Fointiat, V. (2004). ‘I know what I have to do, but .’: When hypocrisy leads to behavioural change. Social Behavior and Personality,32 , 8, 741-746 Aronson, E. Fried, C.B., Stone, J. (1991). Overcoming denial and increasing the intention to use condoms through the induction of hypocrisy. American Journal of Public Health, 81, 1636-1638. Becker, M.

In this paper, we propose a behavioral approach to determine the extent to which the consumer/citizen distinction affects interpretations of monetary values in stated preferences methods. We perform a field experiment dealing with air pollution, where some (randomly selected) subjects are given the opportunity to behave politically by signing a petition for environmental protection prior to stating their private preferences in a standard contingent valuation exercise. We show that signing has the potential to influence respondents' willingness to pay values. Results indicate that even market-like situations are not immune to citizen behavior.

The commitment/consistency principle for compliance implies that people act in ways consistent with their previous behavior. Cialdini and Sagarin (2005) have stated that, according to this principle, asking individuals questions to which they would be expected to say "yes" could be associated with achieving greater compliance with a subsequent request. However, this procedure, referred to as the four walls technique, has never been tested experimentally. In this study, we conducted an experiment in which participants were first asked to answer several questions that required "yes" or "no" responses. Then, the participants were asked to comply with an additional request. It was found that saying "yes" several times beforehand is associated with greater compliance with a subsequent request than is saying"no" beforehand or when no first request was made.

In the first part, we explain how the processes of receiving and influencing public health messages designed to change cognitions (thoughts), affects and intentions of action operate. This type of communication is based on the principle that such changes should be followed by behavioral changes. However, a large body of research shows that traditional persuasive communication is not always effective in changing harmful behaviors. It is to counteract these limitations that the concept of engaging communication has been proposed, whose recent application to the Internet medium seems to show good effectiveness in the health field. Digital engaging communication will be the subject of the second part. In the third part, we explain how the recent digital communication means for health, the serious games on the Internet or mobile applications, work.

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No summary available.

A better understanding of the influence of advertising, public health communication and therapeutic education using the media allows us to design more effective actions to change risk behaviors and promote healthy behaviors. This chapter first explains how the processes of receiving and influencing public health media messages designed to change cognitions (thoughts), affects and intentions of action operate. After giving some practical recommendations for health professionals, we explain that this type of persuasive communication is based on the principle that such changes should be followed by behavioral changes. However, a large body of research shows that traditional persuasive communication is not always effective in changing behavior. It is to counteract these limitations that the concept of engaging communication has been proposed, and its recent application to the Internet medium would seem to show good effectiveness in the health field. Digital engaging communication is the subject of the second part of the chapter. In the third part, we explain the influence processes of serious games for health, recent ludic means of digital communication on the Internet or via mobile applications.

Based on the ABC model, which postulates that behavior (B) is a product of the interaction between attitudinal variables (A) and contextual factors (C), we studied the influence of social context on the effects of consideration of future consequences (CFC) within the framework of decision making about a pro-environmental behavior. The role of the external situation on the relationship between CFC and the studied behavior was observed through three types of situation: No-communication, persuasive communication and binding communication. The results showed a global effect of CFC on decision making with a moderating effect of the context: CFC had no effect in the least favoring condition (no-communication) nor in the most favoring condition (binding communication). We only observed an effect of CFC in the intermediate condition (persuasive communication). These results confirm the ABC model and highlight the value of taking account of the contextual factors in studying a psychological variable such as CFC.

The commitment/consistency principle for compliance implies that people act in ways consistent with their previous behavior. Cialdini and Sagarin (2005) have stated that, according to this principle, asking individuals questions to which they would be expected to say “yes” could be associated with achieving greater compliance with a subsequent request. However, this procedure, referred to as the four walls technique, has never been tested experimentally. In this study, we conducted an experiment in which participants were first asked to answer several questions that required “yes” or “no” responses. Then, the participants were asked to comply with an additional request. It was found that saying “yes” several times beforehand is associated with greater compliance with a subsequent request than is saying “no” beforehand or when no first request was made.

Although the existence of a negative affect related to dissonance has been largely documented, there is still much debate about exactly when this negative affect appears. The present study tested two hypotheses, the first being that it emerges immediately after individuals have committed to the counterattitudinal behavior (Elliot & Devine, 1994), and the second that it arises somewhat later, after an undifferentiated arousal state (Cooper & Fazio, 1984). The facial electromyograms (EMGs) of participants in no-dissonance and dissonance conditions were analyzed during the production of a counterattitudinal advocacy. As expected, only in the dissonance condition did participants' facial EMGs indicate the presence of a negative affect. Instead of appearing just after they had committed to the counterattitudinal behavior, this affect emerged further on in the dissonance process, after participants had embarked on the counterattitudinal advocacy. In addition, the intensity of the negative affect was correlated with attitude change. Taken together, our findings suggest that dissonance arousal is initially undifferentiated and is only later labeled as negative. Furthermore, this negative affect motivates attitude change.

Eliciting sincere preferences for non-market goods remain a challenge due to the discrepency between hypothetical and real behavior and false zeros. The gap arises because people either overstate hypothetical values or understate real commitments or a combination of both. Herein we examine whether the traditional real-world institution of the solemn oath can improve preference elicitation. Applying the social psychology theory on the oath as a truth-telling-commitment device, we ask our bidders to swear on their honour to give honest answers prior to participating in an incentive-compatible second-price auction. The oath is an ancillary mechanism to commit bidders to bid sincerely in a second-price auction. Results from our induced valuation testbed treatments suggest that the oath-only auctions outperform all our other auctions (real and hypothetical). In our homegrown valuation treatments eliciting preferences for dolphin protection, the oath-only design induced people to treat as binding both their experimental budget constraint (i.e., lower values on the high end of the value distribution) and participation constraint (i.e., positive values in place of the zero bids used to opt-out of auction). Based on companion treatments, we show the oath works through an increase in the willingness to tell the truth, due to a strengthening of the intrinsic motivation to do so.

The "evoking freedom" technique is a verbal compliance procedure that solicits someone to comply with a request by simply telling them they are free to accept or to refuse the request. The measure of the efficiency of this technique on compliance with large samples and the evaluation of its influence on various requests was tested in the first set of experiments. This technique was found to be efficient in increasing the number of people who agreed to give money to a requester, the number of smokers who agreed to give a cigarette, passersby who agreed to respond to a survey, and homeowners who agreed to buy pancakes. In the second set of experiments in which the mode of interaction between the requester and the person solicited was tested, the "evoking freedom" technique was found to be associated with greater compliance with a request addressed by mail and through face-to-face, phone-to-phone, or computer-mediated interaction. The third set of experiments tested the effect of semantic variations of the "evoking freedom" technique and the weight of the repetition of the semantic evocation of freedom. These later experiments that used various phrases evoking the freedom to comply were found to be associated with greater compliance. Moreover, a double evocation of freedom was associated with even greater compliance than a single evocation. The importance of this technique for commitment communication is discussed.

No summary available.

No summary available.

Based on the ABC model, which postulates that behavior (B) is a product of the interaction between attitudinal variables (A) and contextual factors (C), we studied the influence of social context on the effects of consideration of future consequences (CFC) within the framework of decision making about a pro-environmental behavior. The role of the external situation on the relationship between CFC and the studied behavior was observed through three types of situation: No-communication, persuasive communication and binding communication. The results showed a global effect of CFC on decision making with a moderating effect of the context: CFC had no effect in the least favoring condition (no-communication) nor in the most favoring condition (binding communication). We only observed an effect of CFC in the intermediate condition (persuasive communication). These results confirm the ABC model and highlight the value of taking account of the contextual factors in studying a psychological variable such as CFC.

This thesis aims to provide some answers about the theoretical status of the Time Perspective (TP) and more precisely of the future temporal extension (measured by the Consideration of Future Consequences - CFC - scale). Focusing on the idea of double contextualization, our results show, on the one hand, that the CFC does have a contextualizing role since it influences the way in which individuals apprehend environmental problems. If this contextualizing dimension is well established in the literature, we show on the other hand that the effect of SWC is a contextualized effect, depending on the social issues associated with the situation. This angle of approach to temporal experience is less explored in the literature, even though it is precisely this necessary consideration of context that underpins the psychosocial approach and distinguishes it from a more differentialist approach. In order to highlight this contextualized effect, we first showed that SWC was dependent on the social integration of the subjects. We then highlighted the dynamic and socially inscribed nature of the relationship between SWC and eco-citizen behavior, mediated by the perception of ecological risks, a socio-cognitive variable. In an attempt to triangulate, we also conducted a series of experimental investigations within the framework of the engaging communication paradigm. The results indicate that subjects' CFC score influences their sensitivity to the arguments presented in a persuasive message and their acceptance of an engaging costly request (contextualizing role), these effects being modulated by the context (control condition vs. persuasive communication vs. engaging communication). Finally, we observed that it was possible to modify, at least momentarily, subjects' sensitivity to the long-term consequences of their behaviors in an engaging communication procedure.

In social psychology, the achievement of cognitive and behavioral changes is often studied in two traditionally separate fields. In the field of persuasion, we are mainly interested in the effects that a persuasive message can have on the cognitive level. In the field of commitment, we are essentially interested in the behavioral effects of committing acts. A new approach proposes to bring these two fields together in the same paradigm: engaging communication. Our project consists in studying the impact of an engaging communication in the field of smoking prevention. On the cognitive level, we are interested in the memorization of information (studies 1, 2 and 3) and in attitude change (studies 4 and 5). Behaviorally, we were interested in intentions to protect oneself from smoking, whether these were intentions to cut down (Studies 1, 2, and 3), to quit (Studies 1, 2, and 3), or not to start smoking (Studies 4 and 5). Participants were approached individually (studies 1, 2 and 3) or collectively (studies 4 and 5). Five main results can be identified. First, engaging communication affects the amount of information remembered from a prevention message. Second, it affects intentions to protect oneself from tobacco. Third, cognitive variables do not significantly affect behavioral intentions. Fourth, engaging communication is effective in both individual and group settings. Fifth, it is effective in a context where individuals have a choice to participate in the action as well as in a context where they have no real choice.

Our thesis is situated at the intersection of work on subliminal priming and work on the classic techniques of submission without pressure: the foot-in-the-door (PDLP, Freedman & Fraser, 1966) and the nose-gate (PAN, Cialdini et al. , 1975). Work on subliminal priming shows that an individual can be influenced in his or her judgments, attitudes, behaviors and even memories by a stimulus without even being aware of it. Work on the PDLP (for review: Burger, 1999) shows that the acceptance of a less costly request (preparatory act) predisposes the subject to accept a more costly request (target request) later on. The work on the NAP shows that refusing a very expensive first query increases the probability of accepting the target query. First, we combined the subliminal priming paradigm with the PDLP in a 4 (positive priming, negative priming, neutral priming, and no priming) x 2 design (with preparatory act vs. without preparatory act) to test their joint effects on volunteering behavior for a road safety prevention association. Our results showed that the effect classically observed with this procedure of voluntary submission (SLC, Joule & Beauvois, 1998) was accentuated when the subjects had been subjected to a subliminal priming inducing a negative emotion. In a second step, we wanted to reproduce this original result in a new experiment with the introduction of a new dependent variable: memorization. In accordance with our expectations, without preparatory act and with negative priming, subjects agreed to give less time to the association. With preparatory act, on the other hand, priming with a positive emotion facilitates recognition. In a third step, we conducted another experiment to see if the same pattern of results was obtained with another SLC procedure based on an inverse principle: the NAP. Using the same experimental design and the same priming procedure, the results showed, as expected, that with a positive priming in the PAN condition, subjects accept to give more time to association compared to the other conditions. Also as expected, with negative priming subjects agreed to give less time to association. The same pattern of results was also observed with the introduction in a fourth time of the variable memorization. The same applies to the PAN effect as to the PDLP effect: the induction of a positive emotion potentiates it while the induction of a negative emotion hinders it. The results of our thesis provided an empirical demonstration that the subliminal priming effects of emotions persist for a few minutes (about 8 minutes) following the subjects' first exposure to subliminal primers and that the social influence behavior produced is not directly associated with these stimuli.

This thesis work deals with luring (Joule, Gouilloux and Weber, 1989). This procedure of voluntary submission takes place in three steps: 1/ a person is led to make an advantageous decision to perform a given behavior, 2/ he/she is informed of the impossibility of performing this behavior, 3/ he/she is proposed to make a new, less advantageous decision concerning another behavior. The results attest to the robustness of the decoy effect (experiments 1 and 2). Two complementary theoretical interpretations are put forward. The first is based on commitment theory: the first decision commits the individual to a behavior (Experiment 3), and more precisely, to a course of action (Experiment 4). The second refers to the psychological discomfort felt by the individual after having learned that it was impossible to carry out the first decision. We test the hypothesis that accepting the second request allows the individual to reduce his discomfort (experiment 5). The results support this interpretation, even when the two requests are not formulated by the same experimenter (experiment 6) and when the two requests are only weakly related (experiment 7). The results attest to an effect of the delay after the advantageous decision has been made on the acceptance of the target request (Experiment 8) and on the participant's psychological discomfort state (Experiment 9). This delay promotes the luring effect. They also attest to an effect of the delay after the announcement of the impossibility of implementing the first decision on the acceptance of the target request (Experiment 10) and on the participant's state of psychological discomfort (Experiment 11). This delay cancels out the lure effect.

The touching procedure consists of touching the arm of the subjects whose help is sought (Kleinke, 1977 . for review, cf Guéguen, 2002). The "You are free to..." (VELD), on the other hand, consists in declaring subjects free to accept or refuse to comply with a request (Guéguen & Pascual, 2000, 2005). These two voluntary submission procedures (Joule, 1986; Joule & Beauvois, 1998), taken in isolation, increase the probability of acceptance of a target request. First objective: to study the joint effect of touch and VELD procedures, relative to their isolated effect (in France). In the literature, touch and VELD procedures have never been studied separately and jointly in the same experiment. Some research shows higher acceptance rates when using both procedures than when using only one. Therefore, we assumed a higher acceptance rate of the target query following the joint use of the touch and VELD procedures than following their isolated use. Second objective: to study the effect of these procedures in two Eastern European countries (Romania and Russia). The results show a greater effectiveness of touch and VELD procedures when used together rather than in isolation in France, Romania and Russia. Furthermore, the touch procedure was effective in France, Romania and Russia on its own, while the VELD procedure was effective in France and Romania on its own.

This thesis concerns the experimental exploration of a new case of double submission, the case of neutral behaviors: the two behaviors C1 and C2 are both neutral to each other, and contrary to the subjects' attitudes. We hypothesized that subjects would be in a higher state of tension after performing the two dissonance-inducing behaviors than after performing one. This state of tension would lead to more pronounced dissonance reduction procedures in the double submission situation. We experimented with three rationalization paths: the cognitive path, the behavioral path and the trivialization path. The results obtained follow directly from the radical theory of cognitive dissonance and show that whatever the dissonance reduction pathway solicited, in double submission, the dissonance reduction work is more marked than a simple submission.

The nose-gate procedure (Cialdini, Vincent, Lewis, Catalan, Wheeler, & Darby, 1975) increases the probability that subjects will accept a target query by confronting them beforehand with a query that is too costly to be accepted. In this work, we propose a motivational interpretation of this effect, according to which the refusal of the extreme request generates a state of tension that the subject will be motivated to reduce by accepting the target request. Interpretations of the nose-gate effect are reviewed, and then six experiments are reported. The results are broadly consistent with the hypotheses.

In the forced submission paradigm (Festinger, 1957), commitment cognitions (engaging or disengaging) are generally irrelevant (consistent or inconsistent) with the generating cognition (Beauvois and Joule, 1996). They are therefore not involved in the rate of dissonance (I/I+C). When they are relevant. Four types of cognitions are possible: consistent and engaging (case 1), consistent and disengaging (case 2), inconsistent and engaging (case 3), inconsistent and disengaging (case 4). 6 experiments lead to the clarification of Beauvois and Joule's (1999) radical proposal: 1/ if neutral commitment cognitions are necessary for the awakening of dissonance, they could also determine the importance of this awakening according to a linear function. 2/ the relevant commitment cognitions would play the role of simple relevant cognitions, modulated, occasionally, by their engaging or disengaging character.

The objective of this work is to understand how the foot-in-the-door, a strategy consisting of asking for little (preparatory act) in order to obtain more (Freedman and Fraser, 1966), could become more effective. In order to do this, we have drawn on several distinct theoretical fields, notably the theory of the central core of social representations (Abric, 1976) and the theory of commitment (Kiesler, 1971). The main aim of the research we have carried out is to determine the behavioural and cognitive effects of carrying out a preparatory act relating to a central "or" peripheral element of a social representation.

In the double submission paradigm, the subject performs two behaviors. To obtain these two behaviours, the experimenter can formulate either two distinct requests, one concerning each behaviour taken in isolation (double contract), or a request concerning both behaviours globally (global contract). The aim was to study the rationalization effects induced by these two types of contract. The results are globally in line with our expectations. When subjects perform two problematic behaviors (case 1) in different commitment contexts, more rationalization is obtained by formulating a global contract than by formulating a double contract (experiment 1). The opposite result is obtained when the two behaviors are performed in identical commitment contexts (Experiment 5). When subjects perform a counter-attitudinal behavior followed by a pro-attitudinal behavior (case 2), less rationalization is obtained by formulating a global contract than by formulating a double contract (experiment 2). We were able to show that these effects were based on the number of decisions made by the subject when the behaviors are consistent with each other (experiments 3 and 5), and on the exhaustive or incomplete information available to the subject before performing the behaviors when they are inconsistent with each other (experiment 4). The results obtained in our five experiments are compatible with the radical theory of dissonance (Beauvois and Joule, 1996). They are, however, difficult to reinterpret within the framework of self-perception theory (Bem, 1972) or impression management theory (Tedeschi, 1981).

The aim is to show that in the situation of false attribution, in which attitude change is absent, dissonance reduction can take place through trivialization. Our results clearly show that, in this situation, the trivialization path can be used instead of the attitude change path. They also show the alternative character of the different dissonance reduction paths (attitude change, rationalization in action, trivialization) in a false attribution situation. The 7 experiments carried out globally confirm the hypotheses put to the test. It emerges that in the false attribution situation the dissonance is put to sleep. As soon as the subject is refocused on his submissive behavior, the dissonance reappears.

The present thesis is situated in the field of social psychology and is based on the theory of cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957) and more precisely on its radical version (Beauvois and Joule, 1981; Joule, 1987; Joule and Beauvois, 1998). Our objective is to study the cognitive effects of commitment (attitude change) in a new paradigm of dissonance theory: the double forced submission paradigm. In this paradigm, subjects perform two behaviors in succession, not just one. Indeed, the results of some research on double submission may seem contradictory. In some research, when subjects perform two contractual behaviors, the change in attitude, in the direction of rationalization of the contractual behavior, is stronger (Joule, 1991a), whereas in other research the change in attitude is less (Joule, 1991b; Joule & Girandola, 1994). It is thus as if, in one case, the second behavior increased the cognitive dissonance generated by the first, while in the other case, it decreased it. We propose to overcome this contradiction in the light of Kiesler's (1971) theory of commitment. Four experiments have been carried out: in the first two, both behaviors are contractual, in the next two, only one behavior is contractual. These experiments separate Festinger's theory from the consistency theories and from the rival theories of cognitive dissonance: the theory of self-perception (bem, 1967 . 1972) and the theory of impression management (tedeschi, 1981) in particular.

This work is part of the problem of predicting attitude change following submissive behavior from the registers (internal and external) of causal attribution. Our initial hypothesis was to expect a greater change in attitude in subjects who explained their submissive behavior internally than in subjects who explained their behavior externally. Seven experimental studies were carried out on a population of students. The first results show that the variable "causal attribution" affects the cognitive effects of a submissive behavior if one takes into account, not the internal or external nature of the attributions, but the possibility given or not to explain the submissive behavior and the degree of agreement expressed towards these causal explanations: subjects who justify their behavior (i. The subjects who justify their behavior (i.e., who adhere to internal or external causal explanations) change their attitude more than the subjects who do not have this possibility, and this, all the more so as they express a high degree of agreement towards these explanations. We also observe that subjects who justify their submissive behavior change their attitude more than subjects who counter-justify it (i.e., who agree with reasons that could explain the refusal to perform this behavior). We then hypothesized that the effects of causal attribution registers on attitude change could be mediated by the variable "justification versus counter-justification of the submission behavior." The last results, treated by the lisrel method, show that the internal register positively affects attitude change, its effects being mediated by the effects of the variable justification, and that the external register negatively affects attitude change, its effects being mediated by the effects of the variable counter-justification of the submission behavior.

According to Festinger's (1957) theory of cognitive dissonance, when subjects perform a behavior that goes against their beliefs or motivations, they experience a state of tension called dissonance. To reduce this dissonance, subjects can modify their beliefs to better match their behavior. Based on the radical conception of cognitive dissonance theory (beauvois, and joule, 1981, 1996), joule (1986b) considers a new modality of dissonance reduction: rationalization in action. According to him, a counter-attitudinal behavior can be rationalized, by the realization of a new behavior consistent with the first one. The objective of this thesis is to study the process of rationalization in act and to prove that the acceptance of the second behavior does reduce dissonance. In the first chapter, we present Festinger's (1957) theory of cognitive dissonance and the motivational properties of dissonance. We review the different modes of dissonance reduction, and analyze whether they are used in a complementary or alternative way. The second chapter is devoted to a presentation of the radical conception of cognitive dissonance theory and the rationalization process in action. Our third chapter is experimental. In our experiments, we lead subjects to perform a counter-attitudinal behavior. Immediately afterwards, we propose a second behavior. We measure the rate of acceptance of the second behavior as well as its effect on the level of dissonance (attitude change). Our main hypothesis is that if subjects rationalize in act, they should no longer feel the need to rationalize cognitively (attitude change).

Traditionally, after the performance of an act contrary to an attitude (forced submission paradigm), a change of this attitude in the direction of a justification of the act (rationalization) is observed. However, in some experiments of forced submission, this classical change of attitude is not obtained. In some cases, we even observe an opposite effect: the devaluation of the act. For some authors, this effect would be consecutive to the activation of another process: the attitude maintenance process. The main objective of this study is to determine the conditions of activation of this last process. In a first chapter, we are interested in the experiments in which the effects of the maintenance process are observed. On the basis of a review of the literature, we have formulated some propositions: - unlike the process of rationalization of the act, the process of attitude maintenance is active when the attitude is resistant to change, before the realization of the counter-attitudinal act. - an attitude resistant to change is related to attitudinal cognitions (consistent with the attitude but inconsistent with the act) and non-defensible counter-attitudinal cognitions (by non-defensible we mean "not acceptable" to individuals). - The presence of defensible ("acceptable") counterattitudinal cognitions would promote attitude change. Our second chapter is devoted to a series of experiments aimed at testing these propositions: only the last one has not been fully verified. A third chapter tries to show the limits of the relevant interpretations in the field to explain our results and beyond, the effects of the attitude maintenance process. Finally, the last chapter aims to review the state of the research, in the paradigm of forced submission, by attempting to model the conditions of activation of a dissonance reduction process.

Among the most recent revisions of the theory of cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957), the radical version (Beauvois and Joule, 1981; Joule, 1986) makes it a theory of rationalization of behavior. The process of dissonance reduction (rationalization) allows the value of the dissonance-inducing behavior to be restored a posteriori. Moreover, on the basis of the motivational property of dissonance, this rationalization process is seen as a process with two alternative paths: a cognitive path, cognitive rationalization, and a behavioral path, rationalization in action, the use of one of these modalities reducing the probability that the individual will resort to the other. We have worked on this alternative character of the rationalization process (experiment 1), in the false attribution paradigm of cognitive dissonance (experiment 2) as well as in the lie detector paradigm (experiment 3). Our results show that the individual in a false attribution situation can no longer cognitively rationalize the submission behavior (classical false attribution effect). On the other hand, he can take the behavioral path of rationalization, provided that he is given the opportunity to do so.

The interest of this work is to propose a new reading of the experiment of Festinger and Carlsmith (1959). We have given this experiment, initially conceived as a simple induced submission, a new paradigmatic framework: the double induced submission. In this experiment, the subjects emitted two behaviors. They performed a series of tedious tasks (first behavior) and then had to present it to the next student (second behavior). For these authors, only the performance of the second behavior (presentation of tasks positively) was crucial because it was from this that the rate of dissonance (d d+c) was established. In our opinion, the cognition related to the realization of a series of tasks must be taken into account in the establishment of the dissonance rate. Indeed, the results observed in our experiments 1,2,3 and 4 show that the first behavior is likely to affect the dissonance rate. The four experiments performed are consistent with the radical version of the cognitive dissonance theory (Beauvois & Joule, 1982): - the rate of dissonance is based on a generative cognition related to the subject's behavior and not on the subject's private attitude. - The process of dissonance reduction is not oriented towards cognitive coherence but towards the rationalization of behavior. Its function is to restore the value of the extorted problematic behavior.