The reading of obscene sexual words to be initiated to the discussion involved a greater investment by the subjects than reading non-obscene words. Listening to a dull discussion was not worth the embarrassment of reading the obscene words, resulting in cognitive dissonance. The strong initiation subjects convinced themselves that the discussion was more interesting than it actually was to make their effort to feel worthwhile. The mild initiation group did not invest as much to listen to the discussion, so when they found it to be boring they did not feel cheated. In this type of situation, people can change their beliefs, their attitudes, or their behaviors. He has signed on to the military for four years, and he cannot legally leave.
Cognitive Dissonance: Festinger’s Theory
Ever wondered why we often make choices that leave us scratching our heads? The answer may lie in a fascinating psychological phenomenon known as cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance theory has been successfully applied in many fields. It has been used to explain and predict the motivational nature of dissonance that led to attitude and behaviour changes at both the individual and organisational level. As studies on dissonance reduction have grown, specific reduction strategies have been explored. A review has summarised and classified those strategies into seven categories (McGrath, 2017).
Dissonance due to Inconsistency between Commitment and Information
It provides an introduction to the theory and covers the topics of cognitive dissonance following decisions, the effects of forced compliance, the impacts of voluntary and involuntary exposure to information, and the role of social support. In romantic relationships, important values represent hotspots for cognitive dissonance and typically center on big decisions, such as the wish to have children, lifestyle choices (e.g., buying a house vs. traveling the world), and issues related to family and friends. Dissonance can also be experienced vicariously through people of a social group that we identify with. When they act inconsistently with their attitude, we feel the same discomfort as if we had acted inconsistently with our attitude ourselves (Cooper, 2016).
- However, the one-dollar group rated the tasks positively, while the twenty-dollar group rated the tasks negatively.
- There is also some ambiguity (i.e., vagueness) about the term “dissonance” itself.
- Examples of such inconsistencies or dissonance could include someone who litters despite caring about the environment, someone who tells a lie despite valuing honesty, or someone who makes an extravagant purchase, but believes in frugality.
- Leon Festinger first presented the cognitive dissonance theory in 1957 to illustrate the relationship between perceptions, motivations, and cognitions.
How to resolve cognitive dissonance
Imagine confronting a sunbather with the information that excessive sun exposure is the leading cause of skin cancer. The two thoughts – ‘sunbathing can cause cancer’ and ‘I am sunbathing’ – will cause the discomfort of cognitive dissonance. The concept of cognitive dissonance is nicely explained in this YouTube video by social psychologist Andy Luttrell. However, if a person finds that they have difficulty stopping a behavior or thinking pattern that is causing them distress, they can seek support from a qualified healthcare professional, such as a primary care doctor or therapist. If that same person believes the COVID-19 pandemic is real but refuses to wear a mask, their values and behaviors would contradict each other.
A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance – Leon Festinger
Heider’s Balance Theory, on the other hand, emphasizes the desire for balanced relations among triads of entities (like people and attitudes), with imbalances prompting changes in attitudes to restore balance. Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) investigated if making people perform a dull task would create cognitive dissonance through forced compliance behavior. In an intriguing experiment, Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) asked participants to perform a series of dull tasks (such as turning pegs in a peg board for an hour).
It is a mechanism that alerts us when we are not acting in line with our beliefs, attitudes, or plans. That slight feeling of discomfort we perceive when noticing this mismatch is called cognitive dissonance. Because it is something a person feels internally, it is not possible to physically observe dissonance. As such, no set of external signs can reliably indicate a person is experiencing cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance occurs when a person holds two related but contradictory cognitions, or thoughts. Read on to learn more about cognitive dissonance, including examples, signs a person might be experiencing it, causes, and how to resolve it.
Table the discussion if you need to
As you can imagine, participant’s attitudes toward this task were highly negative. When there is an inconsistency between attitudes or behaviors (dissonance), something must change to eliminate the dissonance. That’s why we often respond to cognitive dissonance by doing mental gymnastics to feel like things make sense again. The more good options you have or the more alike the options are, the more cognitive dissonance you’ll experience. Essentially, the internal conflict that results when you recognize the contradiction throws your mental balance (that feeling of “everything’s going well”) out of whack.
- Cognitive dissonance can also occur when consumers are exposed to negative information about a brand they are loyal to.
- The average person probably wouldn’t fault you for telling the lie—$500 is a lot of money and for most people would probably be enough to justify a relatively inconsequential lie.
- Some studies also investigated moderators, such as income and product involvement (Gbadamosi, 2009), on consumer decision making.
- Their framework speaks to this possibility by showing how violent actions by individuals can affect individual attitudes, either ethnic or racial animosity (Acharya, Blackwell, and Sen, 2015).
- How strong dissonance impacts an individual boils down to two key influences.
Others hand out programs that include net nannies so that members will be blocked from critical sites. At the far end of the spectrum is total authority over information, or totalitarianism. Dillman, Smyth and Christian (2009) viewed survey response as a voluntary action within a context of reciprocal social obligations, and showed how survey procedures can build a positive social exchange with prospective survey participants. The elaboration likelihood model is one of the most influential approaches in the history of work on attitude change and persuasion. This model was proposed by Petty and Cacioppo (1981, 1986), and it has greatly reinvigorated work on attitude change since the early 1980s. As we will see, this model also has been applied to applications of clinical and counseling practice.
Discussing discrepant behavior
For example, a small 2019 study notes that dissonance-based interventions may be helpful for people with eating disorders. This approach works by encouraging people to say things or role-play cognitive dissonance addiction behaviors that contradict their beliefs about food and body image. There are a variety of ways people are thought to resolve the sense of dissonance when cognitions don’t seem to fit together.
