Dissonance can play a role in how people act, think, and make decisions. They may engage in behaviors or adopt attitudes to help relieve the discomfort caused by the conflict. Some things that a person might do to cope with these feelings include:. People like to believe that they are logical, consistent, and good at making decisions. Cognitive dissonance can interfere with the perceptions people hold about themselves and their abilities, which is why it can often feel so uncomfortable and unpleasant.
When there are conflicts between cognitions thoughts, beliefs, opinions , people will take steps to reduce the dissonance and feelings of discomfort. They can go about doing this a few different ways, such as:. Sometimes, the ways that people resolve cognitive dissonance can contribute to unhealthy behaviors or poor decisions.
In "A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance," Leon Festinger, the psychologist who first described this phenomenon, gave an example of how a person might deal with dissonance related to a health behavior by discussing individuals who continue to smoke, even though they know it is bad for their health.
There are a few ways that a person might resolve this dissonance:. Leon Festinger first proposed the theory of cognitive dissonance centered on how people try to reach internal consistency. Inconsistent or conflicting beliefs lead to disharmony, which people strive to avoid. In his book, "A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance," Festinger explained, "Cognitive dissonance can be seen as an antecedent condition which leads to activity oriented toward dissonance reduction just as hunger leads toward activity oriented toward hunger-reduction.
It is a very different motivation from what psychologists are used to dealing with but, as we shall see, nonetheless powerful. Cognitive dissonance plays a role in many value judgments, decisions, and evaluations.
Becoming aware of how conflicting beliefs impact the decision-making process is a great way to improve your ability to make faster and more accurate choices.
Mismatches between your beliefs and your actions can lead to feelings of discomfort and, sometimes, coping choices that have negative impacts , but such feelings can also sometimes lead to change and growth. Ever wonder what your personality type means? Sign up to find out more in our Healthy Mind newsletter. Dissonance reduction as emotion regulation: Attitude change is related to positive emotions in the induced compliance paradigm.
PLoS One. Festinger L. A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford University Press; Vaidis DC, Bran A. Respectable challenges to respectable theory: Cognitive dissonance theory requires conceptualization clarification and operational tools.
Front Psychol. Hasan U. Cognitive dissonance and its impact on consumer buying behaviour. Cooper, J. Cognitive Dissonance: 50 Years of a Classic Theory. London: Sage Publications; Gawronski, Bertram, and Fritz Strack. Cognitive consistency: A fundamental principle in social cognition. New York: Guilford Press. This book provides an overview of the cognitive consistency field and of the place of cognitive dissonance theory.
Harmon-Jones, Eddie. Cognitive dissonance: Reexamining a pivotal theory in psychology. Aimed at a postgraduate and researcher audience, this book is a collection of chapters written by various top experts in the field of cognitive dissonance. It offers a substantial panorama of the theories and research issues. The first edition was released in and the second edition proposed several updates.
Harmon-Jones, Eddie, and Judson Mills. Cognitive dissonance: Progress on a pivotal theory in social psychology. It offers a substantial panorama of the theories and research issues of the s. Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login. Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions.
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Username Please enter your Username. Password Please enter your Password. Forgot password? Don't have an account? Sign in via your Institution. While fringe members were more inclined to recognize that they had made fools of themselves and to "put it down to experience," committed members were more likely to re-interpret the evidence to show that they were right all along the earth was not destroyed because of the faithfulness of the cult members.
Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory suggests that we have an inner drive to hold all our attitudes and behavior in harmony and avoid disharmony or dissonance. This is known as the principle of cognitive consistency. When there is an inconsistency between attitudes or behaviors dissonance , something must change to eliminate the dissonance.
Notice that dissonance theory does not state that these modes of dissonance reduction will actually work, only that individuals who are in a state of cognitive dissonance will take steps to reduce the extent of their dissonance. The theory of cognitive dissonance has been widely researched in a number of situations to develop the basic idea in more detail, and various factors that have been identified which may be important in attitude change.
When someone is forced to do publicly something they privately really don't want to do, dissonance is created between their cognition I didn't want to do this and their behavior I did it. Forced compliance occurs when an individual performs an action that is inconsistent with his or her beliefs. The behavior can't be changed, since it was already in the past, so dissonance will need to be reduced by re-evaluating their attitude to what they have done.
This prediction has been tested experimentally:. In an intriguing experiment, Festinger and Carlsmith asked participants to perform a series of dull tasks such as turning pegs in a peg board for an hour. As you can imagine, participant's attitudes toward this task were highly negative.
Almost all of the participants agreed to walk into the waiting room and persuade the confederate that the boring experiment would be fun. For example, suppose you had to decide whether to accept a job in an absolutely beautiful area of the country, or turn down the job so you could be near your friends and family. Either way, you would experience dissonance.
If you took the job you would miss your loved ones; if you turned the job down, you would pine for the beautiful streams, mountains, and valleys. Both alternatives have their good points and bad points. The rub is that making a decision cuts off the possibility that you can enjoy the advantages of the unchosen alternative, yet it assures you that you must accept the disadvantages of the chosen alternative.
People have several ways to reduce dissonance that is aroused by making a decision Festinger, One thing they can do is to change the behavior. As noted earlier, this is often very difficult, so people frequently employ a variety of mental maneuvers. A common way to reduce dissonance is to increase the attractiveness of the chosen alternative and to decrease the attractiveness of the rejected alternative.
This is referred to as "spreading apart the alternatives. Brehm was the first to investigate the relationship between dissonance and decision-making. The products included an automatic coffee maker, an electric sandwich grill, an automatic toaster, and a portable radio. Participants in the control group were simply given one of the products.
Because these participants did not make a decision, they did not have any dissonance to reduce. Individuals in the low-dissonance group chose between a desirable product and one rated 3 points lower on an 8-point scale. Participants in the high-dissonance condition chose between a highly desirable product and one rated just 1 point lower on the 8-point scale.
After reading the reports about the various products, individuals rated the products again. Participants in the high-dissonance condition spread apart the alternatives significantly more than did the participants in the other two conditions.
In other words, they were more likely than participants in the other two conditions to increase the attractiveness of the chosen alternative and to decrease the attractiveness of the unchosen alternative. It also seems to be the case that we value most highly those goals or items which have required considerable effort to achieve. This is probably because dissonance would be caused if we spent a great effort to achieve something and then evaluated it negatively.
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