cognitive dissonance theory

When there is a mismatch between one’s conduct and attitudes, cognitive dissonance emerges. The discrepancy must be rectified in order to reconcile the dissonance. This can be accomplished through modifying an individual’s attitudes or conduct. According to the hypothesis, people have a tendency to seek consistency in their thoughts, views, and beliefs. When these discrepancies between behaviors and attitudes exist, some modification is required to eliminate the cognitive dissonance (Bruner, Brunswik, Festinger, Heider, Muenzinger, Osgood & Austin, 2017).

Dissonance can be resolved by altering one’s attitudes or conduct. When there is a mismatch between attitude and behavior, the viewpoint most likely shifts to accommodate the behavior (Perlovsky, 2017). Strong dissonance is created when two substitutes are likewise in attraction. The theory is based on three essential assumptions namely: that human beings are sensitive to inconsistencies between beliefs and actions, dissonance will occur if the discrepancies are recognized, and this will motivate one to resolve the dissonance and the three ways of addressing the dissonance (Bruner et al., 2017).

There are three methods to reduce dissonance. These methods include reducing the significance of the dissonant theories, adding more consonant theories that outweigh the dissonant beliefs, and changing the dissonant beliefs rendering them inconsistent (Perlovsky, 2017). A perfect example of the approach: let us consider an individual who procures an expensive vehicle that is not comfy for long drives.

Dissonance occurs between their opinions that the car bought is good and that it should be comfy. In such a scenario, elimination of dissonance can be by deciding to focus on the vehicle’s strengths such as appearance, safety, convenience. This method involves adding more consonance in the belief. Another way to solve this is by getting rid of the vehicle by selling which is way harder to accomplish than to alter the opinion.

Reference

Bruner, J. S., Brunswik, E., Festinger, L., Heider, F., Muenzinger, K. F., Osgood, C. E., ... & Austin, G. A. (2017). The Emergence of Cognitive Psychology Robert R. Holt, Ph. D.

Perlovsky, L. (2013). A challenge to human evolution—cognitive dissonance. Frontiers in Psychology, 4.