Cognitive Dissonance Theory TheoryHub Academic theories reviews for research and T&L

This concept of out-group dementalisation can also be seen in our reduced attributions of mind to pest species compared with other animals 32. For participants who were not asked to lie, and for participants who lied in exchange for $20, they tended to report that the study indeed wasn’t very interesting. After all, participants who had told a lie for $20 felt that they could justify the lie because they were paid relatively well (in other words, receiving the large sum of money reduced their feelings of dissonance). Although familiar information tends to reproduce itself, new information has an impact, according to many theories.

Emotions of Cognitive Dissonances

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). Festinger (Festinger, 1962) theorised that a pair of cognitive elements may relate to each other in three ways. However, identification of the relationship https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/vicodin-addiction-symptoms-treatment-and-recovery/ may also be difficult, as two elements may be dissonant in one context, but not in another (Festinger, 1962). Dissonance can arise from many sources, including, but not limited to, logical inconsistency, cultural differences, contradictions between specific opinions and their related general stand, and a disconfirmation of a past experience to a current situation (Westmeyer, 2012).

How Cognitive Dissonance Feels

Participants perceived evidence as stronger when it was presented in a story order rather than in the order in which the witnesses provided their statements. When the prosecution’s evidence was presented as a story, a majority of participants convicted the suspect. Similarly, when the defence’s evidence was presented in the story order, a majority of participants acquitted the suspect. The totality of evidence presented to participants in these conditions was identical, suggesting that the difference in verdicts must be due to the different presentation orders.

• Festinger used the case of a habitual smoker to demonstrate the theory (Festinger, 1962).
• The group can try to make them feel guilty for their religion of origin, race, country, or some aspect of their personal history.
• Cognitive dissonance theory was first presented by Leon Festinger in 1957 in order to explain the relationships between the motivation, perceptions and cognitions of an individual (Festinger, 1962).
• This produces a feeling of mental discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance.

How Attitude Change Takes Place

• Self-concepts may be more or less elaborate, resulting in respectively more stable and moderate or volatile and extreme self-evaluations (Linville’s complexity–extremity theory).
• It is known that emotions of cognitive dissonances often lead to an immediate elimination of the source of discomfort, which is a contradictory knowledge.
• If a member shows signs of wishing to leave the group, they will be aware that the leadership has this information, and the threat of disclosure may be used to bring the member back into line or to keep them silent.
• A second line of person perception theories also originated in gestalt ideas and eventuated in dual-process models.

An early and often replicated experiment illustrates the power and counterintuitiveness of the theory. In what is now known as the induced compliance effect, Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) asked individuals to perform 30 minutes of a mind-numbingly tedious activity, and then to persuade a waiting participant that the activity was in fact quite interesting. This situation created cognitive dissonance in most individuals—they believed that the task was boring, yet inexplicably found themselves arguing quite the opposite. Half of the participants were given a ready excuse for telling this lie—they were paid $20 to do so—while the other half, paid only $1, had no such excuse.

Cognitive dissonance is a term for the state of discomfort felt when two or more modes of thought contradict each other. The clashing cognitions may include ideas, beliefs, or the knowledge that one has behaved in a certain way. However, this mode of dissonance reduction frequently cognitive dissonance theory presents problems for people, as it is often difficult for people to change well-learned behavioral responses (e.g., giving up smoking). When there is an inconsistency between attitudes or behaviors (dissonance), something must change to eliminate the dissonance.

• The generally low reported levels of cognitive dissonance are therefore in agreement with the lack of belief perseverance that we observed.
• Participants in the high-dissonance condition chose between a highly desirable product and one rated just 1 point lower on the 8-point scale.
• Effects of the order in which evidence is presented were examined by Pennington and Hastie (1988).
• Similarly, when the defence’s evidence was presented in the story order, a majority of participants acquitted the suspect.
• A review of cognitive dissonance theory at the organisation level was also conducted to integrate the relevant knowledge that was published from 2000 to 2016 (Hinojosa et al., 2017).
• Some groups use hours of tedious lectures several times a week, demanding that members memorize and regurgitate the correct answers in tests.
• However, this mode of dissonance reduction frequently presents problems for people, as it is often difficult for people to change well-learned behavioral responses (e.g., giving up smoking).

When faced with two similar choices, we are often left with feelings of dissonance because both options are equally appealing. Alternatively, they may reduce cognitive dissonance by being mindful of their values and pursuing opportunities to live those values. However, Festinger believed that all people are motivated to avoid or resolve cognitive dissonance due to the discomfort it causes.

• Contrary to our expectations, participants did not show belief perseverance in their ratings of the likelihood of the suspect being guilty.
• Thus, despite the final rating of likelihood of guilt shifting towards the last piece of evidence that participants saw, participants were not sufficiently influenced by the evidence to cause a difference in conviction rates.
• We accomplish this by justifying why our choice was the best option so we can believe that we made the right decision.
• According to the theory, inconsistency between attitude and behavior produces an unpleasant emotional state called ‘cognitive dissonance,’ and people try to reduce this undesired state by changing their attitudes.
• To function by that expectation of existential consistency, people continually reduce their cognitive dissonance in order to align their cognitions (perceptions of the world) with their actions.
• We feel this continuum of emotions (not just many separate emotions) when listening to music.