COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

THEORY

Lesson 7
INTRODUCTION

Stimulus

Response
INTRODUCTION

Stimulus

Response ?
INTRODUCTION
1. The mind operates as an intermediary between stimulus and
response.
2. When people receive information (a stimulus), their minds
organize it into a pattern with other previously encountered stimuli.
If the new stimulus does not fit the pattern or is inconsistent, then
people will feel discomfort.
DEFINITION OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
• Feeling of discomfort from inconsistent attitudes, thoughts and behaviour
• An aversive drive that causes people to become motivated to reduce
dissonance
• They will :
1. Ignore/avoid opposing views points
2. Change their private beliefs to match their public actions/ behaviour
especially when there is minimal justification for an action
3. Seek reassurance after making a difficult decision
ASSUMPTIONS OF CDT
1. Human beings desire consistency in their cognitions (beliefs, attitudes and
behaviors)
• People do not enjoy inconsistencies in their thoughts and beliefs. Instead, they seek consistency.

2. Dissonance is created by psychological inconsistencies

• Not logical consistency. In another words, two beliefs are contradicting in phycology.

3. Dissonance is an aversive state that drives people to actions

• It suggests that people who do not enjoy being in a state of dissonance; it is an uncomfortable
state. They would feel uncomfortable.
4. Dissonance motivates efforts to achieve consonance and to reduce
dissonance
• Avoid inconsistency, strive for consistency by changing thought, belief, attitude and thus behaviour.
CONCEPTS AND PROCESSES OF COGNITIVE
DISSONANCE
• Magnitude of dissonance is the quantitative amount of discomfort
felt
• Magnitude of dissonance will determine actions people may take
and cognitions they may espouse to reduce the dissonance.
• Influencing factors
• Degree of importance of the issue
• Dissonance ratio = Consonant cognitions – Dissonance
cognitions
• Rational to justify the inconsistency – reasoning/ explanations
TECHNIQUES TO COPE WITH DISSONANCE
• Reduce the importance of dissonant beliefs
• Add to consonant beliefs (rationalizing/ justifying)
• Eliminate dissonance
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND PERCEPTION
• CDT relates to the processes of selective exposure, selective attention, selective
interpretation, and selective retention because the theory predicts that people will avoid
information that increases dissonance. These perceptual processes are basic to this
avoidance.

Selective exposure – seeking consistent information that is not already

present

Selective attention – paying attention only to information that is

consistent to what you believe

Selective interpretation – involves interpreting ambiguous information so

that it becomes consistent

Selective retention – remembering and learning consistent information

with much greater ability than do inconsistent information.
MINIMAL JUSTIFICATION
• 1. Minimal justification has to do with offering only the minimum
• incentive required to get someone to change.
• Offering the least amount of incentive necessary to obtain
compliance or change
• 1/20 dollar experiment
1/20 DOLLAR EXPERIMENT
• It is a 2-hour experiment
• Purpose: to observe the relationship between expectations and the actual experience of a
task with no introduction
• The task: putting 12 spools into a tray, emptying it again and refilling the tray and so on.
• The process: the subjects were told that the experiement is interesting and they were
given 1 dollar and 20 dollar each to inform the next participant interesting.
• The results: the one dollar subject experience cognitive change more than the twenty
dollar subject
• Conclusion: the larger the pressure used to change one’s private opinion, beyond the
minimum needed to change it.
1/20 DOLLAR EXPERIMENT
Question in Interview Control One Dollar Twenty Dollars
How enjoyable the -0.45 1.35 -0.05
task were
How much you 3.08 2.80 3.15
learned
Scientific Importance 5.60 6.45 5.18
Would participate in -0.62 1.20 -0.25
similar experiment
CDT & PERSUASION

A. Much of the research following from Festinger's work focuses on persuasion,

especially with regard to decision making.
CRITICISMS OF CDT
1. Dissonance as the most important concept to explain attitude change.
2. "Conceptual fuzziness" – some note that the concept of dissonance is confounded by self-concept
or impression management.
3. Self-perception and CDT – some researchers argue that self-perception operates to change people
and not dissonance.
4. Self-Affirmation – dissonance is the result of behaving in a manner that threatens one’s sense of
moral integrity.
5. CDT also has been critiqued on two of the criteria for evaluating theory.
a. Some critics feel that the theory does not posses a practical utility because CDT offers multiple
ways to reduce dissonance; the theory is not able to predict outcomes with any degree of precision.
b. Regarding testability, it is difficult to disprove the theory; critics of CDT point out that because CDT
asserts that dissonance will motivate people to act, when people do not act, proponents of the theory
can say that the dissonance must not have been strong enough, rather than concluding that the theory
is wrong.
STRENGTH OF CDT
B. Critical strengths of CDT.
1. Some scholars believe CDT is generally useful and explanatory, but needs some
refinements.
2. CDT offers insight into the relationship among attitudes, cognitions affect, and behaviors.