Congnitive dissonance, stress and virus-induced common colds.

A study of the effect of cognitive dissonance on symptoms of rhinovirus-induced common colds and their infectivity in 48 volunteers is presented. Subjects, about to be experimentally infected with two common cold viruses (rhinoviruses), were given a choice as to whether or not to receive a “trial anti-viral drug” (in fact a placebo) during the course of their infection. To make this choice difficult, they were also told that if they received the “drug”, their gastric juices would have to be sampled by means of a stomach tube at the end of the experiment. It was predicted from Cognitive Dissonance Theory that all those making this choice, irrespective of the alternative chosen, would justify their decisions by “attenuating” the experienced severity of their colds, and that this effect would be evidenced in their symptoms and possibly in the amount of virus shed as compared to controls who were neither given the placebo nor the choice concerning it.An effect exactly opposite to that predicted was obtained. Symptoms, but not virus shedding were significantly influenced by the psychological manipulations involved, the symptoms of subjects given a choice being more severe than those of subjects not choosing. Interpretations of this are explored.