COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY

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COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY

• Of Leon Festinger

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Definition

• Cognitive Dissonance discomfort experienced when
  ones behavior and attitudes or opinions are
  mismatched
• Postulates basic need for consistency. People
  adjust behavior to fit attitudes, or adjust
  attitudes to fit behavior
• Tension of dissonance motivates change.
• Tension increases according to the issues
  importance to the self (remember ego-involvement
  from ELM)

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Reducing DissonanceHypothesis 1

• SELECTIVE EXPOSURE
• Avoidance of exposure to threatening ideas /
  exposure to ideas consistent with existing
  beliefs prevents dissonance.
• Warm personal relationships provide supportive
  environment for reception of threatening ideas

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Reducing DissonanceHypothesis 2

• POST DECISION DISSONANCE
• creates a need for reassurance.
• PDD greater according to time spent making the
  decision, and when decision is difficult to
  reverse.

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Reducing DissonanceHypothesis 3

• MINIMAL JUSTIFICATION FOR ACTION INDUCES SHIFT IN
  ATTITUDE
• This hypothesis suggests it is better to change
  behavior first, and to provide only minimal
  reward for that change, so that respondents feel
  they have engaged in the behavior for its
  intrinsic benefits, not just to receive the
  (paltry) reward.
• Attitudes more likely to follow behavior, when
  behavior has involved considerable
  effort/investment
• In the 1/20 lie experiment, those who
  received 1 worked harder to bring their
  self-perception into line with their deception
  by reframing their deception as the truth.

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Revisions to dissonance theory

• Dissonance caused by psychological rather than
  logical need for consistency
• The knowledge that one has damaged another
  creates dissonance
• Some people reduce dissonance by reminding
  themselves by self affirmation tactics. High
  self-esteem is a resource for reducing
  dissonance.
• Denial, forgetfulness, trivialization are
  alternatives to attitude change, when faced with
  dissonance.

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Implications for Persuasion

• Good relationship with persuadee will bypass
  selective exposure
• Good relationship will provide support to help
  cope with PDD
• Provide only just enough encouragement for new
  behavior. Freely chosen new attitudes/behaviors
  endure
• Encourage persuadee to take responsibility for
  any negative outcomes

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Critique

• May not be falsifiable
• We need a way to detect the amount of dissonance
  an individual experiences