Homeowners were interviewed and expected to be either personally identified (public commitment) or not identified (private commitment) as having agreed to attempt energy conservation. The response measure of energy usage was provided by utility-meter readings for the month following the interview. Homeowners under public commitment showed a lower rate of increase in the use levels for both natural gas (Experiment I) and electricity (Experiment II) than under private commitment or in the control (no interview condition). Results from a set of self-monitoring conditions suggested that conservation may be related to increased attention to energy use levels.

Researchers in consumer behavior have attempted to relate attitude change, information seeking, and brand loyalty to the concept of cognitive dissonance. The writers review the consumer behavior literature relating to cognitive dissonance, critique the research, and provide some directions for future research.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. American Marketing Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Researchers in consumer behavior have attempted to relate attitude change, information seeking, and brand loyalty to the concept of cognitive dissonance. The writers review the consumer behavior literature relating to cognitive dissonance, critique the research, and provide some directions for future research. Cognitive Dissonance and ConsumerBehavior:A Review o f t he Evidence INTRODUCTION In the last 10 years substantial research has been applied to a number of topics in consumer behavior. Most of the studies have involved concepts and propositions formulated on the basis of social psychological theories. One such theory which has been found to have applications to consumer behavior is the theory of cognitive dissonance [7, 20].Several articles have provided critical reviews of the theory and have described how the theory relates to consumer behavior [8, 19, 25, 45]. Many of these earlier summaries of the theory gave much promise for an increased understanding and applications for consumer behavior. There are now 23 studies which have examined empirically the arousal and reduction of cognitive dissonance in the context of consumer behavior . Therefore, it would be valuable to examine critically all of the empirical studies that have investigated the applicability of cognitive dissonance theory to the consumer behavior context2. For clarity, the

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