Free-Choice Dissonance Paradigm

The free-choice paradigm, introduced by Jack Brehm in 1956, measures post-decisional dissonance through the phenomenon of spreading of alternatives. Participants first rate the desirability of a set of items, then choose between two options that they had rated as roughly equally attractive, and finally re-rate all the items. Because the chosen option has some unattractive features and the rejected option has some attractive ones, a difficult choice between similar alternatives creates dissonance; participants reduce it by enhancing their evaluation of the chosen option and devaluing the rejected one. This 'spreading' of the two alternatives' desirability after the decision is the paradigm's signature measure and a key demonstration that choices not only reflect preferences but also shape them. The paradigm became a standard tool for studying decision-induced attitude change, alongside the induced compliance procedure.