Yes, cognitive dissonance is the inconsistency and incompatibility of a person’s values, attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors. When someone acts or behaves in a way that doesn’t align with what they believe to be right, the contradiction causes discomfort. Festinger’s (1957) cognitive dissonance https://ecosoberhouse.com/ theory suggests that we have an inner drive to hold all our attitudes and behavior in harmony and avoid disharmony (or dissonance). 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.
Forced Compliance Behavior
Since participants in the $20 condition had a more substantial justification (higher pay) already, they were further assumed to perceive less dissonance than those in the $1 condition. A person who feels defensive or unhappy might consider the role cognitive dissonance cognitive dissonance theory might play in these feelings. If they are part of a wider problem that is causing distress, people may benefit from speaking with a therapist. Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort a person feels when their behavior does not align with their values or beliefs.
- Our discussion starts with cognitive dissonance—one of the most prominent topics in social psychology.
- Commitment is an important determinant both of cognitive dissonance and of self-perception (see earlier discussion of Bem’s 1972 conception).
- His prediction proved to be true — those who experienced disconfirming evidence on the hilltop were strengthened in their belief.
- Ajzen’s updated theory of planned behavior adds a third component to predict intentions, namely perceived behavioral control.
- The second condition necessary for cognitive dissonance to work is that people must have a freedom of choice.
- First, the person could remove the dissonant cognition by either changing his behaviour (stop smoking) or knowledge (believe that smoking is actually not bad for health).
- Cognitive dissonance theory, proposed by Festinger, focuses on the discomfort felt when holding conflicting beliefs or attitudes, leading individuals to seek consistency.
Changing Behavior
- We human beings naturally seek harmony between our thoughts, values, and actions.
- When you do something or behave a certain way that goes against your values, you may experience cognitive dissonance.
- A smoker who knows that smoking is bad for health will experience dissonance, which causes mental discomfort, because the habit of smoking and the knowledge of how harmful smoking is are conflicting.
Negative consequences of cognitive dissonance reduction include procrastination or acting seemingly contrary to our values and beliefs. However, it can be beneficial to remind ourselves that it exists as a psychological safety mechanism to help us perceive the world consistently and to protect the perception we have about ourselves. The expectation of shared beliefs, values, and attitudes from family members can additionally influence romantic relationships. If these don’t align, we might consider justifying our relationship or breaking up. An extreme example of the negative consequences of cognitive dissonance is when we justify our partner’s harmful behavior toward us and get stuck in a toxic relationship. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people are averse to inconsistencies within their own minds.
Decision Making
Category-based theories of impression formation (Sect. 3.1) describe how negative out-group categories stimulate negative understanding. Mere knowledge of the stereotypes about one’s group creates stereotype threat (Steele), undermining the performance of distracted, frustrated, targets of stereotyping. Dissonance theory revolutionized social psychology by emphasizing the role of cognition in social behavior.
- In the coming years, we believe that it is inevitable that psychologists of differing disciplines will question the utility of offering wholly ‘distinct’ motivational accounts for each instantiation of this general inconsistency compensation phenomenon.
- People sometimes deal with this by finding ways to justify their behaviors or findings ways to discredit or ignore new information.
- Although familiar information tends to reproduce itself, new information has an impact, according to many theories.
- People who experience dissonance but have no way to resolve it may also feel powerless or guilty.
- Since they work all day in an office and spend a great deal of time sitting, it is difficult to change their behavior.
- Alauna Curry, MD, a trauma psychiatrist in Houston, says cognitive dissonance is widespread in the real world — and it’s problematic.
- It’s like the person who drives more slowly when a police officer is nearby but ignores speed limits once officers are no longer present.
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Cult leaders want members to feel positive self-esteem through being a part of the group, not through individual accomplishments. Guilt, fear and aversion or disgust [12] are the three most frequently used emotional control techniques. Festinger, [2–4] in his ground-breaking Cognitive Dissonance Theory described how beliefs have a cognitive, an affective, and a behavioral component. In his study and his book [3,4], Festinger infiltrated students into a UFO cult. He predicted that those who traveled to the hilltop to be picked up by a UFO would be more likely to continue to believe than those who did not make the journey.
Cognitive Dissonance and the Discomfort of Holding Conflicting Beliefs
- Often, we deal with cognitive inconsistencies without being aware of them.
- However, Festinger believed that all people are motivated to avoid or resolve cognitive dissonance due to the discomfort it causes.
- More aimed at advanced researchers in cognitive dissonance, Harmon-Jones 2019 (the second edition of Harmon-Jones and Mills 1999) is an edited volume that synthesizes modern perspectives on dissonance.
- Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors.
