The cognitive dissonance theory

Description This is the feeling of uncomfortable tension which comes from holding two conflicting thoughts in the mind at the same time. It has the advantage of being testable by scientific means i.

Discomfort about making the wrong choice of car is bigger than when choosing a lamp. Starting with the premise that humans have an innate drive to accurately evaluate their opinions and abilities, Festinger postulated that people will seek to evaluate their opinions and abilities by comparing them with those of others.

Forced compliance occurs when an individual performs an action that is inconsistent with his or her beliefs. Had they vainly donated away their material possessions.

The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58 2The influence process in the presence of extreme deviates. 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.

There are three ways to eliminate dissonance: After reading the reports about the various products, individuals rated the products again. In this respect, dissonance theory is contradictory to most behavioral theories which would predict greater attitude change with increased incentive i.

When an earthquake disaster occurs to a community, irrational rumors, based upon fear, quickly reach the adjoining communities unaffected by the disaster because those people, not in physical danger, psychologically justify their anxieties about the earthquake. You may decide to confront him about it and tell him your feelings were hurt.

Then notice how that came about. Psychological Review, 49, — The believer must have social support from other believers.

On resistance to persuasive communications. It was at MIT that Festinger, in his own words, "became, by fiat, a social psychologist, and immersed myself in the field with all its difficulties, vaguenesses, and challenges.

Scientific American, 493— Many of these might be attempts to alleviate cognitive dissonance. Effort It also seems to be the case that we value most highly those goals or items which have required considerable effort to achieve. Results have shown that the initial experience of dissonance can be apparent in the anterior cingulate cortex, then the left frontal cortex is activated, which also activates the approach motivational system to reduce anger.

Self-evaluation as a function of attraction to the group. All of the children refrained from playing with the forbidden toy the steam shovel. To reduce cognitive dissonance, the participant smokers adjusted their beliefs to correspond with their actions: The lower-floor residents near the stairs are more likely than their lower-floor neighbors to befriend those living on the upper floor.

The accuracy of two-dimensional saccades in the absence of continuing retinal stimulation. He then moved to the University of Minnesota inand then on to Stanford University in.

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.

Cognitive dissonance theory was based on abstract/internal/mental concepts, which were, of course, anathema to the behaviorists. Festinger and Carlsmith set. Cognitive dissonance theory was based on abstract/internal/mental concepts, which were, of course, anathema to the behaviorists.

Festinger and Carlsmith set. The theory of cognitive dissonance was developed in by a social psychologist named Leon Festinger. It’s since become one of the most influential theories in the field of psychology. 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 douglasishere.com is a very different motivation from what psychologists are used to dealing with but, as we shall see, nonetheless powerful.".

While not a theory of motivation, per se, the theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. The cognitive miser perspective makes people want to justify things in a simple way in order to reduce the effort they put into cognition.

The cognitive dissonance theory