The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance

The theory of cognitive dissonance started as a very simple observation by Leon Festinger that people do not like to deal with inconsistency. This simple observation led to the development of a theory that became very controversial, and it would be this controversy that propelled the theory forward. Many years of research has led to many different ideas of what cognitive dissonance really is and why it actually occurs.

Festinger developed the term cognitions while developing his theory on cognitive dissonance. Festinger described a cognition as any piece of knowledge a person may have about one’s attitude or behaviors. Festinger stated that when a cognition occurs that is in direct contradiction with the cognition that came before it, cognitive dissonance as occurred. The standard concept that has developed out of Festinger’s view is that cognitive dissonance occurs when a person’s action or behaviors are not consistent with the beliefs that they hold about themselves and how they should behave. This inconsistency in the person’s behaviors and their belief about themselves creates a feeling of psychological discomfort. When the psychological discomfort is great enough, a motivational state arises that compels the individual to reduce the discomfort. The greater the inconsistency, the greater the psychological discomfort, the greater the motivation becomes to reduce the discomfort. The more important a cognition is to the individual’s sense of self, the greater the discomfort can become when faced with inconsistencies.

Cognitive dissonance typically occurs when an individual’s behavior is inconsistent with their beliefs. Since the individual is unable to change the behavior that has occurred they must change their att...

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...oal or reward, valued that goal or reward greater than those that did not endure increased levels of punishment. Researchers studying learning theory believed that these results were exactly the opposite of what cognitive dissonance researchers should have found and a great deal of research began to discredit these findings. This created an increased awareness of the theory and created many experiments that ended up helping the theory instead of discrediting cognitive dissonance.

The development of the self-perception theory by Daryl Bem was an attempt to change the theory of cognitive dissonance from a theory of attitude change due to dissonance to one of attitude change through self-evaluation. Self-perception theory argued that people are simply adjusting their beliefs on their own observations about their behaviors not because of psychological discomfort.