Lastly, the aversive consequences model (also commonly known as ”a new look at dissonance”) (Cooper & Fazio, 1984) also presented an alternative view on mental discomfort. This model proposed that the psychological stress was caused by the feeling of being self-responsible for inducing aversive consequences, rather than the inconsistency in cognitive elements. 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. Festinger used the case of a habitual smoker to demonstrate the theory (Festinger, 1962).
Reverse Psychology: New Ideas About an Old Concept
Its calculation is summarised in the mathematical expression below (Festinger, 1962). The total tension of a dissonance is the proportion of the =https://ecosoberhouse.com/ inconsistent cognitions to the consistent cognitions that one has, each weighted by its importance. The theory of cognitive dissonance has had profound impact on research in social psychology, Its influence goes beyond that field, however.
Brain Connectivity Patterns Reveal Limited Links to Youth Mental Health Symptoms
Aim to replace a behavior with a new one rather than simply drop an action. For example, you believe you need to save money, but you’re also a compulsive spender. You can develop a habit of putting a certain amount of money in a savings account after payday. The signs of cognitive dissonance often differ from person to person.
Decision Making
- They committed to a belief in the prophecy but new information, the aliens not coming, caused them to question their commitment.
- Firstly, Festinger integrated various concepts, including attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, value and behaviours, which had been considered separately as a single construct of cognition.
- Understanding cognitive dissonance can not only help us make better decisions but also foster empathy and tolerance towards others, recognising that everyone is engaged in their own internal tug-of-war between conflicting beliefs and values.
- This procedure was intended to increase the salience of the environmental protection norm (Stone & Fernandez, 2008).
- A person who cares about their health might be disturbed to learn that sitting for long periods during the day is linked to a shortened lifespan.
The predictive dissonance account is highly compatible with the action-motivation model since, in practice, prediction error can arise from unsuccessful behavior. This theory has been discussed since the early days of Festinger’s proposal of cognitive dissonance. The idea is, choosing something that is in opposition to how you drug addiction treatment feel or believe in will increase cognitive dissonance.
The subjects convinced themselves that the tasks were somewhat interesting to rectify the dissonance due to inconsistency between believing the tasks were boring but telling someone they were interesting. Cognitive dissonance theory has become popular among social psychology and social science researchers since its early days, due to its few tenets that are able to explain the complex process of dissonance. However, the parsimonious nature of its formulation and application made the theory subject to the paradox of simplicity and raised concerns about overlooking confounding variables (Festinger, 1957; Osgood, 1960; Zajonc, 1960). In response to the limitations of the theory, three revisions of cognitive dissonance theory have been proposed. Firstly, the self-consistency model cognitive dissonance theory (Abelson, Aronson & McGuire, 1968; Aronson, 1999) addressed the paradox of the simplicity of the original theory by adding self-concept as a further explanation of dissonance. Secondly, the self-affirmation model (Berkowitz, 1988) focused on the overall self-image of moral and adaptive adequacy as an alternative explanation for attitude change.
- This is particularly true if the disparity between their beliefs and behaviors involves something that is central to their sense of self.
- 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.
- The subjects whose strong initiation required reading aloud obscene words evaluated the discussion as more-interesting than the subjects of the mild initiation group.
- Brehm (1956) was the first to investigate the relationship between dissonance and decision-making.
However, this mode of dissonance reduction frequently presents problems for people, as it is often difficult for people to change well-learned behavioral responses (e.g., giving up smoking). Participants in the control group were simply given one of the products. Because these participants did not make a decision, they did not have any dissonance to reduce. Individuals in the low-dissonance group chose between a desirable product and one rated 3 points lower on an 8-pointscale. In an intriguing experiment, Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) asked participants to perform a series of dull tasks (such as turning pegs in a peg board for an hour). As you can imagine, participant’s attitudes toward this task were highly negative.
