Consider the following scenario. You and your friend, Bob, play a lot of sports. You have an important hockey game coming up this weekend, and

Consider the following scenario. You and your friend, Bob, play a lot of sports. You have an important hockey game coming up this weekend, and Bob is one of your best players. Unfortunately, Bob has an important basketball game at the same time. You need to convince him to play hockey this weekend, as the team needs his if they are going to win. You wait for the perfect moment to broach the subject. Finally, it comes. Recently, Bob asked a girl out that he’d been interested in and, poor guy, she turned him down. You immediately call two other teammates and together you take Bob out for coffee. After settling down with your drinks, you quickly get to the point. “Look Bob”, you say, “I need you to make a decision here, which sport is more important to you, hockey or basketball?” Before Bob has a chance to respond, you remind him of a basketball game he missed just last week. You end off with a plea. “Come on Bob, we are all counting on you here. What will your teammates think of you if you aren’t there for them?” QUESTIONS: Using this scenario, discuss cognitive dissonance theory. Begin by explaining what cognitive dissonance is. In the process of doing this, explain the purpose of reminding him that he missed a basketball game just the previous week (i.e., how this creates dissonance). Then, on the role of arousal in producing attitude change through cognitive dissonance, explain why it might be problematic that he is drinking coffee (say you bought him a decaf coffee, though he ‘thinks’ it’s caffeinated) while experiencing dissonance. Be sure here to draw an analogy to the relevant study (hint: pill study in which the coffee is acting like the arousing pill). Finally, describe normative social influence and how it might be operating in the current situation in your favour. In particular, what two factors are in play that might Bob make the “right” decision (i.e., factors that might increase normative pressures)?