Motivation to Write about the Cognitive Dissonance Theory
The most influential and widely studied theory in the history of social psychology is a Cognitive Dissonance theory. Since the theory talks about people's experience in case of psychological discomfort, the theory drew my attention towards it and captivated me to write about it. The theory says that when people are in the situation of dissonance, they try to reduce it either by changing cognitions and behaviors or by adding new cognitive elements. Individuals want to seek consistency in their beliefs and opinions (i.e. their cognitions). In case, inconsistency is observed between behaviors or attitudes, they need to change something to reduce this dissonance. Thus, the theory explains the human reactions in case of dissonance.
Since the theory talks about the mental discomfort that people experience when consciously or unconsciously, they realize conflicting thoughts, beliefs or attitudes, the theory draws a lot of attention towards itself. According to the theory, the psychological state of tension arises due to the dissonance that people are motivated to reduce. Thus, the theory states what people should do when they experience feelings of discomfort, unhappiness or distress which are the factors that captivated me to write about the theory. Individuals strive towards consistency is the notion on which the theory is built upon. When they face inconsistencies, they tend to rationalize them to reduce psychological discomfort.
Cognitive Dissonance theory suggests that when people are holding two conflicting thoughts in the mind at the same time, there is a feeling of uncomfortable tension which increases with the following factors:
how important the subject is to us
how strongly the thoughts within our mind are conflicting
Our inability to move away from the conflict
Dissonance often increases with the fact that people believe something about themselves and what they do is against that belief. Cognitive dissonance motivates the people to change one or the other of the conflicting action or belief. Three ways to eliminate the dissonance are:
reducing the importance of the dissonant belief
changing the dissonant beliefs
adding more constant beliefs that remove the dissonant beliefs
The situation where an individual needs to choose between two actions or beliefs leads to the occurrence of dissonance and when the two actions are equally important, the dissonance is greatest. Thus, the cognitive dissonance theory is applicable for all the situations where attitude change and formation is involved. The most important relevance of the theory is in problem-solving and Decision-making.
One of the examples of Cognitive dissonance theory can be: Smokers (behavior) often know that smoking is injurious to health and causes cancer (cognition). Festinger's cognitive theory proposes that people experience an inner drive to hold all their beliefs and attitudes in harmony and avoid dissonance. The example of 'The fox and the Grapes' defines cognitive dissonance theory very well. The fox saw some grapes, which were high on a vine. The fox wanted to eat them. He jumped, but couldn't get them as they were very high. When the fox realized that he could not eat the grapes, he lost his interest in the grapes and satisfied himself with the thought that grapes were sour. This is an example of cognitive dissonance: the feeling that people experience when one belief is contradictory to pre-existing action or belief.
The research of the cognitive dissonance theory has been done in a number of situations which can be divided into following three main areas:
Forced Compliance Behavior: When someone really does not want to do something that he is forced to do, it creates dissonance between his/her behavior (he did it) and cognition (he/she did not want to actually do that). Thus, because of forced compliance, individuals are forced to perform actions inconsistent with their beliefs. Since the behavior was already in the past, it cannot be changed and hence there is a need to reduce the dissonance by checking their attitude towards what they have done.
Decision-Making: In life, the decision has to be taken at every step and dissonance arouses with the decision-making. For example, accepting a job that is very far away from the individual's native place. So, the decision has to be taken whether to accept the job or to stay near to the family. The advantages of the unchosen alternative will be cut off from making any decision and the disadvantages of the chosen alternative should be accepted. This increases dissonance. To reduce this dissonance, the attractiveness of the selected option must be increased and the attractiveness of the rejected option should be decreased.
Effort: The goals or items for which any individual has spent considerable time and effort to achieve are valued the most by the individual. If the person has to evaluate it negatively, the dissonance would be there for sure. In order to reduce dissonance, people try to convince themselves with various notions like the effort was really not that much, the effort was enjoyable etc. This method of reducing dissonance is called 'effort justification'.
Cognitive Resonance Theory in Media
The mind is distracted by the dissonance and comes out of its normal harmonious state. A person is happy with one thought and suddenly comes a message that increases the dissonance, so the mind has to start working to take one decision. Cognitive dissonance is defined as the mental discomfort when media is there. People generally are inclined to the media that coincides with their thought and beliefs. While watching any movie or commercial that does not coincide with their personal experiences or beliefs, they fell uncomfortable and dissonance increases. If a person is watching his/her favorite serial on the television, and suddenly the advertisement comes, that person may stumble across that one which would not sit well with him/her.
Commercials that are against smoking are good examples of cognitive dissonance. For a regular smoker who can burn a pack a day, dissonance is increased for him after watching any commercial against smoking that explains how smoking affects their lives. Though the smoker is very much aware that smoking is harmful to health, the remainder in the commercial makes him uncomfortable.
Cognitive dissonance is also one of the powerful argument structure that is used in speeches for persuading the audience. Creating dissonance in the speech by presenting the information that is not consistent with the values, attitudes or beliefs of the general public is one of the effective ways to persuade the audience to change their values, attitude, beliefs, and behavior. Generally, what is done in speeches is, first the problem is introduced that is against the belief or value held by the audience. Thus, cognitive dissonance is created in the minds of the people. After that, the tools are introduced that empower time management, personal growth and other activities that help them in gaining control over their lives. Thus, the gap between the dissonance's pain and their dream is reduced which makes them happier.
Cognitive dissonance theory plays in vital role in political advertisements and politics also. Political advertisements are very effective in persuading voters towards their side. A large amount of money is spent on campaigns and political advertisements to sway voters to cast their votes in the favor of their candidates. All the political parties strongly voice their opinions and dig up dirt on their competition and the information is presented to the public through political advertisements and campaigns. People experience dissonance when they watch political advertisements of any political party which they do not support. Though people tend to choose candidates according to their political identification, they occasionally cross party lines during their voting. Thus, the differing strategies of advertisements and campaigns and the disconnect between the party identification and the candidate's preference is an excellent example of how the political advertisements can persuade the people about their voting.
Thus, cognitive dissonance can be recognized everywhere in the media like commercials, speeches, political advertisements, and in the news, etc. The news of the 9//11 incident that happened in the United States created dissonance among many of the viewers as to what was reported in the news was not what really happened on 9/11/01. The corporate media report that was coming from Bush White House was contradictory to what they saw.
Is Cognitive Dissonance Theory Still Applicable?
One of the theories that is active in the field of study since last 50 years is the Cognitive dissonance theory. One of the interesting aspects of the cognitive dissonance is that, even from non-obvious events, people are able to make out some sense. This theory, though had many controversies, but now has become widely accepted. As more research is done about its limits and the underlying process, old controversies have ended and new ones have emerged. Thus, the cognitive dissonance theory is very much applicable today and finds its meaning everywhere in media, organizations, social settings etc.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory at Workplace and at Social Settings
Dissonance occurs among employees in organizations at different levels during alignment, misalignment or realignment stages of transformation. The cognitive dissonance also occurs in organizational settings in business ethics judgment. Employees want to have consistency between the ethical values of the organization and their ethical values. For this, they also need support from the top management for their ethical behaviors that should be in their favor. Also, there should be a direct link between career success and ethical behavior as well. When all these expectations are not fulfilled, they start experiencing dissonance which in turn increases their job dissatisfaction.
The development of an individual morally also influences the dissonance levels experienced over and before ethics decisions. Many times, it happens that upper Management takes decision for the organizations' benefit which is contradictory to their own values. Thus, cognitive dissonance occurs between moral values of organizations and individual's decision-making which may be based on personal gains.
Socially, what happens is, people feel bad when they behave immorally according to their own rules and standards. Thus, in their own self-interest, rational people are engaged less in any activity that is against society's moral standards. But, when people's distaste for being immoral is increased, the level of activities which are not ethically correct is also increased. This can be explained because of cognitive dissonance theory that people try to convince themselves that doing such activities is actually correct.
Critics views about Cognitive Dissonance Theory
According to critics, the most important concept for explaining an individual's attitude change cannot be defined with the dissonance. Some researchers believe that attitude change that was observed in one dollar/twenty dollar experiment by Festinger (1957) can also be explained with other theoretical frameworks. Other critics have also stated that a great deal of 'conceptual fuzziness' is present in the original theory of cognitive dissonance. Daryl Bem states that cognition is not the central point of importance and rather it is behavior. Dissonance in cognitions does not change people, but self-perception does.
Conclusion
In conclusion, cognitive dissonance theory says that dissonance arises when people hold two psychologically different cognitions. Thus, either by changing behavior, adding new elements or by changing cognitions, they try to reduce dissonance. This theory has made a great impact on the social psychological history. It has made important contributions to various settings.
References
Cooper, J. (2007). Cognitive Dissonance: 50 Years of a Classic Theory. London: Sage Publications.
Festinger, L. (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. California: Stanford University Press.
Metin, I., & Metin Camgoz, S. (2011). The Advances in the History of Cognitive Dissonance Theory. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science , 131-136.
Telci, E., Maden, C., & Kantur, D. (2011). The theory of cognitive dissonance: A marketing and management perspective. Procedia Social and Behavorial Sciences, 378-386.
West, R., & Turner, L. H. (2015). Cognitive Dissonance theory. Retrieved from http://highered.mheducation.com: http://highered.mheducation.com/sites/0767430344/student_view0/chapter7/index.html
