In a U.S. presidential election, voters are faced with a hotly-debated, high-stakes decision between two or more candidates: a choice that bears international significance and impacts individuals. Recognizing the salience of political elections, scholars have used elections as a natural context in which to study Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance, which addresses how people try to avoid or reduce psychological discomfort in decision-making, as a theoretical interpretive framework to understand political attitudes pre- and post-election. While scholars have applied Festinger’s selective exposure hypothesis to understand how the American public engages with attitude-consistent and counter-attitudinal political messages, especially …show more content…
(Festinger 1957). When multiple “cognitions” — information or opinions about about the self, one’s actions, or the environment — contradict each other, an individual experiences a psychologically uncomfortable state known as “dissonance” (Festinger, 1957, p. 3). Festinger suggests that an individual is motivated to reduce dissonance as one is motivated to reduce hunger. (Festinger 1957). The theory of cognitive dissonance predicts that decisions perceived as important, which involve a long process of evaluating alternatives, and are irreversible will arouse greater levels of dissonance (Griffin, Ledbetter and Sparks, 2015). Because presidential elections exhibit the three conditions which Festinger believes heighten dissonance — they are viewed as important, offer a delay in time for citizens to consider and debate multiple alternatives, and are by nature irreversible, they provide a situation ripe for dissonance production, and many researchers have selected this context to employ Festinger’s theory as an interpretive theoretical framework. Furthermore, when examined according to Aronson’s revision (1968) to the theory, which suggests that dissonance is the result of cognitions inconsistent with one’s self concept, the link between identity and the highly partisan American political system also predicts heightened dissonance. According to cognitive dissonance theory, greater levels …show more content…
“Selective exposure” describes a tendency to avoid information that clashes with one’s beliefs or actions in order to reduce the likelihood of experiencing dissonance (Festinger, 1957). According to Festinger (1957), the use of selective exposure depends on whether one perceives new information as problematic and as likely to create dissonance. If the new information is not anticipated to be dissonance-producing, selective exposure becomes needless and the individual will pay attention to the message (Festinger, 1957). If one believes the new information will be problematic, however, selective exposure will likely be employed to reduce uncomfortable tension (Festinger,
American social psychologist and original developer of the theory of Cognitive Dissonance Leon Festinger breaks down his theory into two main parts. First, the presence of dissonance, inconsistency or unpleasantness, will psychologically motivate a person to achieve consonance, consistency or pleasantness (Festinger 3). Psychologist Elliot Aronson, key researcher in the 20th century of this theory, expands on the definition of dissonance to be more straightforward. Dissonance occurs when a person holds two ideas, beliefs, or opinions at the same time that are contradictory with one and other. Part two of the theory states that a person will attempt to avoid situations or knowledge that would possibly or pro...
Cognitive dissonance is when an individual feels uncomfortable because they are a good person but they have chose to do a bad things. Instead of dealing with the consequences they ignore the situation. Cognitive dissonance can relate to Lords of the flies book on Chapter 9. The morning after the boys killed Simon thinking it was the
The desire for consistency can go beyond rational thought or force a person to rationalize when things are out of line. People find comfort in knowing what to expect. When what is known and believed is challenged, people are disrupted and forced to make a decision on how to process conflicting information. To avoid the discomfort caused by cognitive dissonance, people may ignore opposing views, examine and change their views to maintain consistency with their actions or even seek reassurance (Defining Communication Theories, 2001).
One study done by Leon Festinger in 1957 demonstrates the desire to resolve cognitive dissonance. In this experiment, participants had to perform a series of extremely boring tasks, such as putting spools of thread into a box, dumping them out, and then putting them back in for half an hour and turning wooden knobs (that performed no action other than turning) quarter turns until they were all turned, and then starting back at the beginning and turning them all another quarter turn until the “end” of the study. After the participants were finished with their deliberately boring task, they were asked to lie to the next set of participants (actually just confederates) and were offered either one dollar or twenty dollars to tell them that the study was exciting and enjoyable. This task created cognitive dissonance, which can also occur when reading Science Fiction. After the participants lied, they were asked to honestly rate the task they performed. Surprisingly, the participants who were paid less rated the experiment more highly than those who were paid more. The explanation behind this is that the participants who were paid more cold justify their lie with the fact that they got twenty for it, thus resolving the cognitive dissonance. On
James Wilson, a political science professor at Pepperdine University in California, suggests that polarization is indeed relevant in modern society and that it will eventually cause the downfall of America. In contrast, Morris Fiorina, a political science professor at Stanford University, argues that polarization is nothing but a myth, something that Americans should not be concerned with. John Judis, a senior editor at The New Republic, gives insight into a driving force of polarization, the Tea Party Movement. Through this paper, I will highlight the chief factors given by Wilson and Judis that contribute to polarization in the United States and consider what factors Fiorina may agree with. James Wilson’s article, “How Divided are We?”
Every time the election polls come around, our country appears to be in a small war against itself. Minds are split and people begin to discriminate against each other over small technicalities that we should be solving, not fighting about.... ... middle of paper ... ... Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007.
It is a very different motivation from what psychologists are used to dealing with but, as we shall see, nonetheless powerful” (p. 3). A few different factors determine the amount of dissonance individuals experience, including the degree to which one’s belief systems deviate from the regularity. Different cognitions, or types of knowledge, determine the overall strength of dissonance, for instance cognitions, which are connected to personal beliefs and the self, tend to result in stronger dissonance. Furthermore, the relation between dissonance and consonance could also play a role in the degree of strength of dissonance: the greater the dissonance, the more pressure there is to reduce it and reach consonance. When cognitive dissonance occurs, it often results in a conflict between a “person’s two beliefs or a belief and an action” (Festinger 1957, p.), and it is influential to individuals’ actions and behaviors. When a conflict arises, there are different steps individuals take to reduce the consequent dissonance. Festinger suggest three key strategies to minimize cognitive dissonance: (i) changing a behavioral cognitive element, or the focus is put on more supportive cognitive elements that outweigh the dissonant behavior; (ii) changing the environmental cognitive element, or the importance of the conflicting belief is reduced, and (iii) adding new cognitive elements, or the conflicting belief is changed in order to be consistent with other
Cognitive dissonance can be described as the feeling of discomfort resulting from holding two conflicting beliefs. It can also be said to be the mental conflict that occurs when beliefs or assumptions are contradicted by new information. A well-known psychologist Leon Festinger (1919–89), introduced this concept in the late 1950s where he proved that, when confronted with challenging new information; most people are observed to preserve their current understanding of the world by rejecting or avoiding the new information or by convincing themselves that no conflict really exists in one way or the other (Festinger, 04).
Cognitive dissonance theory is the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent. There are three methods that dissonance can be condensed. Individuals can modify one or more of the beliefs, attitude, behaviors, and more, this way the connection between the two elements are in agreement with one another. Another method is to gather new information that will compensate the dissonant beliefs. The third method is to decrease the importance of the beliefs, attitudes, behavior, and etc. Dissonance theory does not say that these methods will work; only people in the state of cognitive dissonance will use these methods to condense the degree of their dissonance. Cognitive dissonance theory
Since the theory was published, cognitive dissonance has made a big impact in the way that people view attitudes and behaviors. To have a clear understanding of the cognitive dissonance theory it important to clearly understand the term cognition. A cognition is the knowledge a person has about something. They can relate to emotions, thoughts, facts or values (Barker, 2003). People hold a vast amount of cognitions with them and many of them are not conflicting with each other. But when cognitions do conflict or contradict with each other dissonance occurs and it leaves an individual in a state of uncomfortable distress. It is evident that people do not like being in a state of dissonance but researchers even argue the desire to hav...
lected Theory: Cognitive Dissonance is an objective communication theory created by Leon Festinger, a Stanford University social psychologist. Cognitive Dissonance is a conflicting mental state caused by discrepancy between two beliefs held by an individual. The more important the belief the stronger the dissonance. The strain caused by dissonance leads us to change our behavior or belief. Festinger says there are three different ways to reduce or avoid dissonance: selective exposure, postdecision dissonance, and minimal justification. Also, Festinger describes three different reasons for why one reduces dissonance. These reasons are self- consistency, personal responsibility for bad outcomes, and self- affirmation to dissipate dissonance.
“Humans are not a rational animal, but a rationalizing one” (“Class 20”). This was asserted by the much acclaimed, significant, and influential social psychologist Leon Festinger as referencing to his theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Social psychology is “a branch of psychology particularly concerned with understanding social behaviors such as” incentive and compliance (Sheehy). Festinger’s contributions to the social and cognitive branches of psychology as well psychology overall prove themselves worthy to today. This theory specifically challenged many common notions that were seemingly already accepted by behaviorists everywhere during his time (Tavris and Aronson). Its reality awakens its verifications. Consecutively, its “enormous motivational power” affects many on a daily basis (Tavris and Aronson). In the final analysis, the theory of Cognitive Dissonance by Leon Festinger is fundamental to behaviorism while directly changing the way human beings across the planet think and do.
After arguably the most divisive and polarizing election in the history of the United States, many Americans are asking how exactly did we get here? Political scholars and experts overrun cable news shows and newspaper editorials with troubling claims declaring that America may be a more polarized nation today than at any other time in its long history. There is no doubt that the American electorate is divided nearly along party lines on almost all current policy issues. Republicans and Democrats seem to be shifting farther and farther toward opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. This paper aims to answer the question of what the primary cause for this current state of polarization is.
The human psyche frequently experiences the phenomena of internal contradiction, followed by an internal struggle for some semblance of balance or consistency (Hall, 1998). Cognitive dissonance acts as motivation for people to behave in a manner that effectively reduces said dissonance and restores balance. Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance explores this occurrence and the subsequent actions that people take in order to create a balance between their ideals.
Over six million individuals were killed in the Holocaust during World War II in Germany. To this day, people still wonder how an entire country could stand by while millions of people were massacred. Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) and Zimbardo (1971) both conducted experiments that involved cognitive dissonance, which helped explain how good people could be persuaded to do bad things. Cognitive dissonance is a feeling of discomfort that occurs when an individual’s actions are inconsistent with his behavior (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959). To reduce this tension, an individual often changes his/her attitude to align with his or behavior (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959). The results of both of these prominent studies provided valuable clinical information regarding the impact of cognitive dissonance that is still