Willem W. A. Sleegers

Who they are

The work of Willem W. A. Sleegers reaches this site through the papers listed below. On this site the name is tied to Induced Compliance, Cognitive Dissonance.

Key papers

Vaidis, D. C., Sleegers, W. W. A., van Leeuwen, F., DeMarree, K. G., et al. (2024). A multilab replication of the induced-compliance paradigm of cognitive dissonance. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 7(1). What it reports: A multilab replication of the induced-compliance design with 4,898 participants in 39 labs in 19 countries. Writing a counterattitudinal essay under high or low choice made no difference to attitudes, while counterattitudinal writers differed from those who wrote a neutral essay.

Sleegers, W. W. A., van Leeuwen, F., Ross, R. M., et al. (2024). When replication fails: What to conclude and not to conclude? Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 7(4). What it reports: A reply to commentaries on the multilab replication that discusses possible reasons for its result, including how perceived choice was manipulated, and reviews methodological issues in the wider literature such as sample sizes and open-science practice.

Key ideas

Induced Compliance: The design in which acting against one's stated view shifts that view.

Cognitive Dissonance: The discomfort of holding a behavior and a belief that don't match, and the near-universal fix: change the belief, not the behavior.

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