People paid less to lie rationalize the lie as genuine belief

Evidence

In 1957, Leon Festinger published his pioneering book A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, in which he offered the idea that we seek harmony between our beliefs, attitudes, and behavior, and experience psychic discomfort when they are out of balance. In seeking resolution, our primary goal is to preserve our sense of self-value. In a typical experiment, Festinger gave subjects an extremely boring task, for which some were paid 1 and some were paid 20. After completing the task, subjects were requested to tell the person who would perform the task after them that it was enjoyable. Festinger found that subjects who had been paid 1 reported the task to be much more enjoyable than those who had been paid 20. Why? Because their ego was at stake. What kind of person would do a meaningless, useless task for just a dollar unless it was actually enjoyable? To reduce the dissonance, they altered their belief that the task had been boring (whereas those who were paid $20 were under no illusion as to why they had done it). — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 86

Categorization

• XREF: Classic insufficient-justification result, later carried into Aronson and Bem’s self-perception theory; connects to general literature on why small incentives breed deeper commitment than large ones. — connects to: Serial falsehood complicates the lie-truth distinction when speakers believe their claims — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 310; A believed higher end makes supporting falsehoods feel truthful to honest people — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1391; People can sincerely promote useful falsehoods without conscious base motives (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• A believed higher end makes supporting falsehoods feel truthful to honest people #corroborates (0.85) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1391
• People can sincerely promote useful falsehoods without conscious base motives #corroborates (0.82)
• Genuine self-deception works by staying willfully uninformed, not by believing falsehoods #complicates (0.78) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 704