This discomfort can lead to either a change in behavior or a change in attitude and therefore repair the dissonant cognitive state. Festinger argues that people are motivated to https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/how-to-write-a-goodbye-letter-to-addiction/ be consistent and avoid the state of dissonance even if that means changing their behavior or attitude (Festinger, 1957; Román et al., 2019, pp. 141–166). If the customer thinks the deception is minor, they will simply not purchase the product.
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Theories of Understanding: Gestalt and Cognitive Theories
The literature that is based on cognitive dissonance theory has broadly covered four phases of the process, namely, cognitive discrepancy, dissonance, motivation and discrepancy reduction (Hinojosa et al., 2017). The cognitive discrepancy phase considered a conflict between two or more cognitive elements. The motivation phase focused on the motivational nature of dissonance to reduce the psychological discomfort. Lastly, the discrepancy reduction phase related to dissonance reduction mechanisms.
- Their thesis is that when a person expends major effort and spends quite a bit of money on therapy, therapeutic success will be facilitated.
- Cooper and Axsom (1982) suggest that effort justification is a common ingredient in psychotherapy.
- Following E. Aronson’s (1968) proposal, Steele’s (1988) self-affirmation theory was among the first to emphasize the importance of self-worth in the experience of cognitive dissonance.
- In fact, psychologists who study cultural psychology have found that many phenomena that were once assumed to be universal may actually be unique to Western countries.
Decision Making
Second, the person could reduce the importance of the dissonant cognition by thinking that the risk of getting lung cancer from smoking is lesser than being in a car accident. Third, the person could increase the amount of consonant cognition by looking for positive effects of smoking. Lastly, the person could focus on the benefits of smoking as an important part of his or her life (Mills & Harmon-Jones, 1999). Van Veen, Krug, Schooler, and Carter (2009) investigated the neural mechanisms underlying such attitude change processes, using an experimental paradigm called induced compliance (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959). While inside an fMRI scanner, participants were asked to tell yet-to-be-tested participants outside the room that they enjoyed performing the boring task in the uncomfortable cognitive dissonance theory scanner environment.
Emotions of Cognitive Dissonances
It therefore seems unlikely that the choice of case can account for the unexpected results in the current study. Nevertheless, it may be beneficial for future research to include several types of crimes, although what is needed for the judge to become convinced of the suspect’s guilt should not differ based on the type of crime. Furthermore, it must also be remembered that treatment and consideration of cases are far more elaborate in real trials than in the current study, which likely also affects the evaluation of evidence. In addition, real-life case files are also likely to contain mainly incriminating information when a case is brought to trial (Crombag, 2017). It is hypothesized that their positive influence on cognition might be a need to make fast decisions, e.g., when a life is threatened, even at the expense of the detailed understanding. Let me repeat that cognitive dissonances often lead to discarding the contradicting knowledge.
Action–motivation model
Moreover, it has been argued that one qualifying condition for dissonance to emerge is that individuals feel responsible for their actions (Cooper & Fazio, 1984). 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. Consistency between cognitions and actions is most common, but it is easy to find examples of inconsistent cognitions (Festinger, 1957). Importantly, a person holding dissonant cognitions only rarely experiences them psychologically as inconsistent in the long term. Instead, more or less successful attempts are made to explain or rationalize them, thereby reducing dissonance.
