When there is an inconsistency between attitudes or behaviors (dissonance), something must change to eliminate the dissonance. Festinger’s influential social comparison theory (1954) can be viewed as an extension of his Sobriety prior theory related to the reliance on social reality for evaluating attitudes and opinions to the realm of abilities. 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. Specifically, people will seek out others who are close to one’s own opinions and abilities for comparison because accurate comparisons are difficult when others are too divergent from those of oneself. To use Festinger’s example, a chess novice does not compare his chess abilities to those of recognized chess masters,48 nor does a college student compare his intellectual abilities to those of a toddler.

The psychology of mental stress

Is it a perception (as “cognitive” suggests), a feeling, or a feeling about a perception? Aronson’s Revision of the idea of dissonance as an inconsistency between a person’s self-concept and a cognition about their behavior makes it seem likely that dissonance is really nothing more than guilt. It is a theory with very broad applications, showing that we aim for consistency between attitudes and behaviors and may not =https://ecosoberhouse.com/ use very rational methods to achieve it. It has the advantage of being testable by scientific means (i.e., experiments).

• Second, the person could reduce the importance of the dissonant cognition by thinking that the risk of getting lung cancer from smoking is lesser than being in a car accident.
• and if the decision was close then the effects of cognitive dissonance should be greater.

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• Meditation can help you be more aware of your thoughts, actions, and points of internal conflict.

What is the difference between cognitive dissonance theory and balance theory?

• Once a choice has been made, however, people need to find a way to reduce these feelings of discomfort.
• Cognitive dissonance is the unease or discomfort you experience when you have cognitions (ideas, beliefs, or values) that aren’t consistent with one another, or when your cognitions and behaviors seem to contradict.
• Have you had dating experiences when your gut told you one thing but your brain told you another?
• It was a new way for psychologists to think about how people internalize their values, arrive at certain attitudes or beliefs, and consider the consequences of their actions.

Or research some of the benefits of eating a little ice cream (it’s a good source of calcium and vitamins A and D). This concept implies that you’re more likely to seek out information that confirms what you already believe, and tune out information that contradicts your beliefs. For instance, if you believe a celebrity is a bad person, you’ll likely pay more attention to new stories that cover them unfavorably. Festinger’s work inspired plenty of additional theories and experimental models. Some theories attempt to expand on, challenge, or reinterpret Festinger’s original proposal. Holly Thompson, PhD is a clinical psychologist specialising in cognitive behavioural therapy and the psychology of decision-making.

• However, for the mild punishment children, it was a more difficult decision.
• They could only overcome that dissonance by coming to believe that the tasks really were interesting and enjoyable.
• Ultimately, cognitive dissonance is a regular and natural occurrence in our lives.

Setting Healthy Boundaries in Relationships

Sometimes the cognitive dissonance induction has no significant effect on the identified discomfort index but affects the negative-self index (Gosling et al., 2006). Moreover, the discomfort index may also lack sensitivity, as its scores are usually very close to the lowest possible value, indicating a likely floor effect. While most scholars agree on the notion that the CDS is aversive, this assumption has remained untested for a long time (Devine et al., 1999).

Study 1: Hypocrisy Paradigm

An individual may fail to restore a consonance, if there is a lack of social support and new harmonious elements, or the existing problematic element is too satisfying (Harmon-Jones & Harmon-Jones, 2007). While cognitive dissonance is often described as something widely and regularly experienced, efforts to capture it in studies cognitive dissonance theory don’t always work, so it could be less common than has been assumed. People do not necessarily experience discomfort in response to every apparent contradiction in their thoughts and beliefs. 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.

The is a case when a pair of cognitive elements does not imply anything concerning one another. Once again, it can be challenging to deduce such a relationship because two elements may be indirectly linked. Therefore, researchers have to consider or make a reference to other cognitions before deriving a conclusion (Festinger, 1962). Leon Festinger first proposed the theory of cognitive dissonance, centered on how people try to reach internal consistency.

• The subjects’ believed the tasks to be boring, but they told the confederate that the tasks were interesting.
• The motivation phase focused on the motivational nature of dissonance to reduce the psychological discomfort.
• Cognitive dissonance theory began by postulating that pairs of cognitions can be either relevant or irrelevant to one another.