This might involve going along with something due to peer pressure or doing something at work to avoid getting fired. There are a number of different situations that can create conflicts that lead to cognitive dissonance. Hypnotic and suggestive techniques to induce “altered state of consciousness” are often used to transform or “reprogram” people’s thoughts and memories. Some groups use hours of tedious lectures several times a week, demanding that members memorize and regurgitate the correct answers in tests. Other groups use audible prayers, chanting, speaking in tongues, davening (rocking backward and forward) or meditation to induce altered states in which people are less capable of analytical thinking or evaluation.
Adding More Beliefs to Outweigh Dissonant Beliefs
A newsreel was a documentary film common in the first half of the 20th century, that regularly released in a public presentation place containing filmed news stories. General-interest newspapers are usually journals of current news on a variety of topics. Those can include political events, crime, business, sports, and opinions (either editorials, columns, or political cartoons). Newspapers increasingly use photographs to illustrate stories; they also often include comic strips and other entertainment, such as crosswords. News films (“clips”) can vary in length; there are some which may be as long as ten minutes, others that need to fit in all the relevant information and material in two or three minutes. News channels these days have also begun to host special documentary films that stretch for much longer durations and are able to explore a news subject or issue in greater detail.
Decision Making
- People sometimes deal with this by finding ways to justify their behaviors or findings ways to discredit or ignore new information.
- However, if two cognitions are relevant, but conflicting, the existence of dissonance would cause psychological discomfort and motivate the individual to act upon this.
- It causes a feeling of discomfort that can motivate people to try to feel better.
Consequently, participants in this group ended up reducing the dissonance they felt another way—by reporting that the study had indeed been interesting. In other words, it appears that participants reduced the dissonance they felt by deciding that they hadn’t lied when they said the study was enjoyable and that they really had liked the https://ecosoberhouse.com/ study. For example, since individuals typically want to see themselves as ethical people, acting unethically would produce higher levels of dissonance. The average person probably wouldn’t fault you for telling the lie—$500 is a lot of money and for most people would probably be enough to justify a relatively inconsequential lie.
What cognitive dissonance feels like
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. Although explained in non-cognitive terms, familiarity effects fit the principle of liking those who seem comfortable, safe, and easily understood. Consistent cognitive dissonance theory with this view, Newcomb developed the similarity principle of attraction, derived from balance theory (above), to explain the clear attraction to others of shared background, attitudes, etc. Similar others also maximize social influence, in Cialdini’s compliance principles. The internal discomfort and tension of cognitive dissonance could contribute to stress or unhappiness.
Forced compliance in decision-making
- Only scant research has investigated multiple dissonance reduction strategies simultaneously (McGrath, 2017).
- When facing a decision between two similar options, for example, you feel dissonance because both are equally appealing.
- Cognitive dissonance theory postulates that an underlying psychological tension is created when an individual’s behavior is inconsistent with his or her thoughts and beliefs.
- From there, a unitary, discipline-straddling account of inconsistency compensation can uncover the true boundaries of this phenomenon, as well as compensation behaviors that have yet to find a disciplinary label.
Cooper and Axsom report research using experimental designs with college students interested in weight control that reveal support for this dissonance explanation of therapeutic outcome. Only participants in a condition involving high dissonance (expenditure of effort via exercise and choice in this type of effort) showed weight improvement relative to comparison conditions involving different approaches to weight control. Commitment is an important determinant both of cognitive dissonance and of self-perception (see earlier discussion of Bem’s 1972 conception). As an illustration, a friend may suggest to a person that it would be helpful if the person helps with the political campaign of a candidate in a local election. The person may make a commitment to engage in the campaigning despite having previously not liked the candidate that much.
It causes a feeling of discomfort that can motivate people to try to feel better. However, Festinger believed that all people are motivated to avoid or resolve cognitive dissonance due to the discomfort it causes. This can prompt people to adopt certain defense mechanisms when they have to confront it. 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. Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) investigated if making people perform a dull task would create cognitive dissonance through forced compliance behavior.
Dissonance is the result of inconsistency between two or more cognitions, and these cognitions may represent one’s attitudes, thoughts about one’s behavior, or other stored information. As the number of cognitions that are inconsistent with each other increases, the amount of dissonance also increases. Several methods are used to produce cognitive dissonance and are at the core of every DBI program. First, participants volunteer to participate in the program and keep an open mind regarding topics discussed. Feeling that participation is voluntary is critical for creating dissonance.