An extreme example of the negative consequences of cognitive dissonance is when we justify our partner’s harmful behavior toward us and get stuck in a toxic relationship. Cognitive dissonance can often have a powerful influence on our behaviors and actions. It doesn’t just influence how you feel; it also motivates you to take action to reduce feelings of discomfort.

Because it is something a person feels internally, it is not possible to physically observe dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors.
However, after further thought, we may decide that it does not matter what others think of us and can thus reduce the dissonance.
In this article the authors using modern statistical techniques aim to test five research paradigms.
For the children threatened with severe punishment, the choice was easy–do not play with the toy.
This model was proposed by Petty and Cacioppo (1981, 1986), and it has greatly reinvigorated work on attitude change since the early 1980s.

Cognitive Dissonance: Theory, Examples & How to Reduce It

The BITE model uses these three components — cognitive, affective and behavioral — and adds information a fourth and overlapping component. In ethical therapy, the client is always encouraged to develop an internal locus of control within their authentic — or autonomous — personality. With undue influence, the cult-identity controls the cognitive dissonance addiction real personality and control is exerted from the outside, so the locus of control is with the cult, through the cult-identity. The expectation of shared beliefs, values, and attitudes from family members can additionally influence romantic relationships. If these don’t align, we might consider justifying our relationship or breaking up.

Introduction to Psychology

Drawing a person’s attention to the dissonance between their behavior and their values may increase their awareness of the inconsistency and empower them to act. By bringing attention to the inconsistencies in our minds, cognitive dissonance may present an opportunity for growth. People who feel it could realize, for example, that they need to update their beliefs to reflect the truth, or change their behavior to better match the person they want to be. The Zajonc mere exposure theory describes people favoring people and objects encountered frequently. Similarly, people are attracted to people in propinquity (close proximity) (Festinger, Schachter, and Back), perhaps because of exposure.

How Cognitive Dissonance Affects Behavior

However, cognitive dissonance can also be a tool for personal and social change.
In other words, an individual can reduce the mental discomfort by changing the inconsistent cognitions, reducing the importance of conflicting elements, acquiring new harmonious elements or increasing the importance of the existing consistent elements.
There is a considerable literature and strong theoretical base underpinning the issue of incentives for survey participation (Dillman, Smyth & Christian, 2009; Sue & Ritter, 2007).
We do not notice negative emotions related to minor everyday choices, because we have a lot of emotions to overcome them.
For participants who were not asked to lie, and for participants who lied in exchange for $20, they tended to report that the study indeed wasn’t very interesting.

When an individual holds two or more elements of knowledge that are relevant to each other but inconsistent with one another, a state of discomfort or dissonance is created. Organisms are motivated by the state of dissonance and they may engage in ‘psychological work’ to reduce the inconsistency. Revisions to the original theory and their supporting research are then described.

Gestalt theories in social psychology emphasize harmonious fit among elements that constitute a coherent whole, hence their influence on consistency theories of attitudes and on schema theories of social perception (see Sect. 3.1).
The second condition necessary for cognitive dissonance to work is that people must have a freedom of choice.
It clarified the conditions that motivate individuals to change their opinions, attitudes, beliefs or behaviours.
Gawronski and Strack 2012 offers an overview of the cognitive consistency field.
Cognitive dissonance theory further centers on the idea that people strive for consistency between their cognitions, and that they apply a variety of methods to achieve it.
We, scientists love to praise ourselves that we do not discard contradictions, that we enjoy contradictions because they give us food for thoughts, for creating theories overcoming contradictions.
If a member shows signs of wishing to leave the group, they will be aware that the leadership has this information, and the threat of disclosure may be used to bring the member back into line or to keep them silent.

Belief disconfirmation

Dissonance can also be extended to other purchase phases, but its purposes will be different (Koller & Salzberger, 2009; Koller & Salzberger, 2012). Rather than trying to reduce dissonance after it occurs, we may attempt to avoid dissonance through selective exposure. In other words, consumers select attitude-consistent information and avoid attitude-challenging information.

Thus, a boring task is afterwards described as interesting, if it was done for little reward.
He has signed on to the military for four years, and he cannot legally leave.
People who experience dissonance but have no way to resolve it may also feel powerless or guilty.
The stronger the discrepancy between thoughts, the greater the motivation to reduce it (Festinger, 1957).
Cognitive dissonance can interfere with the perceptions they hold about themselves and their abilities, which is why it can often feel so uncomfortable and unpleasant.

Reduce the importance of the cognitions (i.e., beliefs, attitudes).

Join 550,000+ helping professionals who get free, science-based tools sent directly to their inbox. Patients are likely to feel uncomfortable when dissonant thoughts are discussed, which can impede their ability to think constructively. Sometimes the dissonant information appears to be important at first sight but can be diminished upon deeper reflection. By Kendra Cherry, MSEdKendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the “Everything Psychology Book.”

Being forced into a decision

The dissonance between two contradictory ideas, or between an idea and a behavior, creates discomfort. Festinger argued that cognitive dissonance is more intense when a person holds many dissonant views and those views are important to them. Cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon that occurs when a person holds two contradictory beliefs at the same time. Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort a person feels when their behavior does not align with their values or beliefs. Cognitive dissonance is a term for the state of discomfort felt when two or more modes of thought contradict each other. The clashing cognitions may include ideas, beliefs, or the knowledge that one has behaved in a certain way.

According to social exchange theory, perceived benefits in the form of incentives to participate must outweigh the costs of participation (i.e., the time and effort to complete the survey). Perceived benefits include both material incentives like cash payments, free gifts or prize draws (extrinsic rewards) and intangible ones such as feelings of enjoyment or a sense of social contribution from participating in a worthwhile project (intrinsic rewards). Cognitive dissonance theory helps illuminate social incentives for survey completion. For example, when individuals consider themselves helpful, kind or generous, refusing to participate is incompatible with their self-perception. Leon Festinger first proposed the theory of cognitive dissonance, centered on how people try to reach internal consistency. He suggested that people have an inner need to ensure that their beliefs and behaviors are consistent.