The Consequences Of Leon Festinger's Theory Of Cognitive Dissonance

The individual is constantly striving for consistency within oneself and around oneself. Humans seek order and regularity, from simple every-day routines to more complex political and social attitudes, and when a disruption, of any kind, occurs, it could lead to overwhelming, even dramatic situations, anxiety, and psychological discomfort. These disruptions are of interest to people, as much are the rules and consistencies in reality. Many choose to deviate from the norm, knowing the consequences of the inconsistencies they create. For instance: serial killers or recidivists. The psychologist Leon Festinger () writes that these inconsistencies could be rationalized and, therefore be perceived as consistent in a particular attitude or a system

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