Understanding Cognitive Dissonance: Theory and Examples

The clashing cognitions may include ideas, beliefs, or the knowledge that one has behaved in a certain way. Some individuals hold power by virtue of expertise or information (French and Raven), evoking internalization (privately cognitive dissonance theory held beliefs; Kelman) in those they influence. More generally, persuasive arguments theory (Burnstein) describes how groups polarize shared opinions, compared to individuals, when they receive novel supporting information.

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We are committed to engaging with you and taking action based on your suggestions, complaints, and other feedback. Participants in the high-dissonance condition spread apart the alternatives significantly more than the participants in the other two conditions. Brehm (1956) was the first to investigate the relationship between dissonance and decision-making. They were then paid either $1 or $20 to tell a waiting participant (a confederate) that the tasks were really interesting.

How does cognitive dissonance encourage behavioral change?

• Cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon that occurs when a person holds two contradictory beliefs at the same time.
• This includes refraining from judgment and instead being accepting of our observations.
• Therefore, researchers have to consider or make a reference to other cognitions before deriving a conclusion (Festinger, 1962).
• Hence, rituals help by embedding behavior, which people otherwise would have had conflicting feelings about, in social norms and institutions.
• By bringing attention to the inconsistencies in our minds, cognitive dissonance may present an opportunity for growth.
• We can all engage in habits that cause harm to ourselves or the world, and that can cause cognitive dissonance.

Sometimes learning new information can lead to feelings of cognitive dissonance. For example, if you engage in a behavior that you later learn is harmful, it can lead to feelings of discomfort. People sometimes deal with this by finding ways to justify their behaviors or findings ways to discredit or ignore new information. Festinger, [2–4] in his ground-breaking https://ecosoberhouse.com/ described how beliefs have a cognitive, an affective, and a behavioral component.

A Biosocial Model of Affective Decision Making

This can be a difficult and uncomfortable process and involves getting additional information. Understanding your beliefs and values behind the inconsistencies is an opportunity to develop deeper self-knowledge. According to Festinger, we can work to reduce the dissonance we feel in several different ways. Hypocrisy involves a contradiction between a person’s supposed principles, beliefs, or character and who they really are or how they behave.

• As such, a person would be more likely to have a positive attitude toward…
• When one of the dissonant elements is a behavior, the individual can change or eliminate the behavior.
• According to Festinger, we can work to reduce the dissonance we feel in several different ways.
• Cognitive dissonance theory began by postulating that pairs of cognitions can be either relevant or irrelevant to one another.

Cialdini (1993) calls this the “foot-in-the-door” technique of behavioral compliance. The theory behind this approach is that in order to resolve the dissonance, a person’s implicit beliefs about their body and thinness will change, reducing their desire to limit their food intake. Avoiding, delegitimizing, and limiting the impact of cognitive dissonance may result in a person not acknowledging their behavior and thus not taking steps to resolve the 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.

• Firstly, the self-consistency model (Abelson, Aronson & McGuire, 1968; Aronson, 1999) addressed the paradox of the simplicity of the original theory by adding self-concept as a further explanation of dissonance.
• Cognitive dissonance can also occur when consumers are exposed to negative information about a brand they are loyal to.
• In fact, the term “meat” itself can be argued to be part of the concealing of these animal origins.
• It also helps us understand better why people sometimes resist persuasion attempts (see discussion below), since some factor such as forewarning of persuasion has activated their thoughtful analysis of the positions being advocated.
• Their thesis is that when a person expends major effort and spends quite a bit of money on therapy, therapeutic success will be facilitated.
• Human behavior drives people to make decisions that lead to comfort in those decisions.

Some studies also investigated moderators, such as income and product involvement (Gbadamosi, 2009), on consumer decision making. Dissonance can also be extended to other purchase phases, but its purposes will be different (Koller & Salzberger, 2009; Koller & Salzberger, 2012). In simple terms, a dissonance is an inconsistency in cognitive elements, which can be knowledge, opinions, beliefs, or the behaviours of an individual. The existence of such inconsistency causes mental discomfort and motivates the individual to take some actions to reduce or eliminate it. We have millions of cognitions, many of which are in our awareness but most are not (Marx, 1976).

Emotion and control

Scientology staff are trained in telling “shore stories” along with “training routine lying” [10,11]. For example, thinking smoking causes lung cancer will cause dissonance if a person smokes. This is often very difficult, as people frequently employ a variety of mental maneuvers. This is probably because dissonance would be caused if we spent a great effort to achieve something and then evaluated it negatively. Participants in the high-dissonance condition chose between a highly desirable product and one rated just 1 point lower on the 8-point scale.

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