Cognitive Dissonance Introduction to Psychology

Let’s say it’s a particularly cold and dreary month of the year and someone who typically sees herself as a social butterfly finds herself spending a lot of evenings alone at home. Recognizing that that behavior doesn’t fit her personality might lead her to realize that she might overall be happier if she made more of an effort to reach out to friends or make plans to be more social in her free time. As a result of changing her behavior to fit what she believes makes her happy, she might actually become happier, Leikam says. In recent years, psychologists have pointed out that many psychology studies recruit participants from Western countries (North America and Europe) and that doing so neglects the experience of people who live in non-Western cultures. In fact, psychologists who study cultural psychology have found that many phenomena that were once assumed to be universal may actually be unique to Western countries. For example, since individuals typically want to see themselves as ethical people, acting unethically would produce higher levels of dissonance.

Cognitive Dissonance and the Discomfort of Holding Conflicting Beliefs

Hence, the person may conclude that he or she “must really like the candidate.” Each of these conceptions may be viable in various arenas when people take actions that are counter attitudinal in nature. Cognitive Dissonance Theory is a psychological theory that explains how individuals experience a psychological tension when their behavior contradicts their thoughts and beliefs. This theory suggests that this tension motivates individuals to change their attitudes in order to achieve consistency between their thoughts and behaviors. Mismatches between your beliefs and 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. When there are conflicts between cognitions (thoughts, beliefs, and opinions), people will take steps to reduce the dissonance and feelings of discomfort. Cognitive dissonance theory, proposed by Festinger, focuses on the discomfort felt when holding conflicting beliefs or attitudes, leading individuals to seek consistency.

A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance – Leon Festinger

Through therapy, individuals can learn to recalibrate the weight of the dissonance or even alter the belief that external opinions hold significant sway. This process can help people recognize that minor mishaps, such as misspeaking during a presentation, do not warrant undue internal anxiety. To restore equilibrium between conflicting beliefs, people often introduce new, reinforced concepts that strike a balance between comfort and discomfort in their decision-making. This theory has profound implications for understanding decision-making processes and how we shape our values and behaviors. In this article, we delve deep into the theory of cognitive dissonance, revealing how it relates to decision-making, dealing with discomfort, and empowering businesses to craft compelling strategies. That’s how recognizing and resolving the cognitive dissonance you experience can help you understand yourself better and the values and beliefs that really matter to you.

Forced Compliance

After reading the list of words, participants were given headphones to listen in on an animal-sexuality discussion that they were told was occurring in the next room. In reality, they were listening to a recorded discussion about cognitive dissonance addiction animal sexual behavior, which the researchers designed to be dull and banal. Later research documented that only conflicting cognitions that threaten individuals’ positive self-image cause dissonance (Greenwald & Ronis, 1978).

• If a person’s motivation and ability to think are very high, however, then expertise should not affect attitudes or compliance since they will be based primarily on a careful evaluation of the issue-relevant arguments presented.
• When the desired “something” is very important, we may have dissonant cognitions that make us tense and unhappy.
• Consistent with this view, Newcomb developed the similarity principle of attraction, derived from balance theory (above), to explain the clear attraction to others of shared background, attitudes, etc.
• 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.
• 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).
• Aversion is fundamental in the conditioning of a high-demand group member — and leads to dispensing of existence [6] — every genocide on record has the perpetrators referring to their victims as sub-human, or as vermin.

After you’ve made your selection, your mind seeks to reinforce your decision as the right one, to reduce feelings of discomfort. However, participants who were only paid $1 had more trouble justifying their actions to themselves—they didn’t want to admit to themselves that they told a lie over such a small amount of money. Consequently, participants in this group ended up reducing the dissonance they felt another way—by reporting that the study had indeed been interesting. In other words, it appears that participants reduced the dissonance they felt by deciding that they hadn’t lied when they said the study was enjoyable and that they really had liked the study. To resolve cognitive dissonance, a person can aim to ensure that their actions are consistent with their values or vice versa.

How To Reduce Cognitive Dissonance

• In this article the authors using modern statistical techniques aim to test five research paradigms.
• Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort a person feels when their behavior does not align with their values or beliefs.
• More generally, persuasive arguments theory (Burnstein) describes how groups polarize shared opinions, compared to individuals, when they receive novel supporting information.