COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

 Dissonance-lack of agreement  Cognition-perception

HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT TWO DIFFERENT THINGS AT ONCE? yes no yes no yes

Salespeople, politicians, teachers, students, EVEN LAW ENFORCERS can manipulate your sense of dissonance into making you do what they want!!

Charities such as the Red Cross know that if they show more realistic disaster images paired with specific victim testimonials on the news, people are more willing to donate more money!!!!

ONE SPECIFIED AREA OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE IS POLITICAL DISSONANCE

Politicians can sometimes feel a strain between what they feel should occur and what their voters expect.

Cognitive dissonance can be found in many areas of communication studies; namely, visual communication, public address, mass communication, and most importantly public relations. People who are selling products want their buyers to be cognitively sound in their decisions.

DEFINATION  Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors.  This produces a feeling of discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance etc.

Festinger's (1957)  cognitive dissonance theory suggests that we have an inner drive to hold all our attitudes and beliefs in harmony and avoid disharmony (or dissonance).  Attitudes may change because of factors within the person. .

Leon Festinger (1957)  According to Festinger, we hold many cognitions about the world and ourselves; when they clash, a discrepancy is evoked, resulting in a state of tension known as cognitive dissonance.  As the experience of dissonance is unpleasant, we are motivated to reduce or eliminate it, and achieve consonance (i.e. agreement).

Eliminate Dissonance  Dissonance occurs most often in situations where an individual must choose between two incompatible beliefs or actions.

Example  Consider someone who buys an expensive car but discovers that it is not comfortable on long drives.  Dissonance exists between their beliefs that they have bought a good car and that a good car should be comfortable.  Dissonance could be eliminated by deciding that it does not matter since the car is mainly used for short trips (reducing the importance of the dissonant belief) or focusing on the cars strengths such as safety, appearance, handling (thereby adding more consonant beliefs).

Cognitive Dissonance Theory Examples  A cognition can be considered a belief  If you like to smoke then this can be considered a cognition. .  For example if you like to smoke but you know that smoking is harmful then that would result in Cognitive dissonance.

Fundamental Assumptions 1) Humans are sensitive to inconsistencies between actions and beliefs.  According to the theory, we all recognize, at some level, when we are acting in a way that is inconsistent with our beliefs/attitudes/opinions. In effect, there is a built in alarm that goes off when we notice such an inconsistency, whether we like it or not.  For example, if you have a belief that it is wrong to cheat, yet you find yourself cheating on a test, you will notice and be affected by this inconsistency.

1) Recognition of this inconsistency will cause dissonance, and will motivate an individual to resolve the dissonance.  You will feel some sort of mental anguish about this.  The degree of dissonance, of course, will vary with the importance of your belief/attitude/principle and with the degree of inconsistency between your behavior and this belief.  In any case, according to the theory, the greater the dissonance the more you will be motivated to resolve it.

1) Dissonance will be resolved in one of three basic ways:  Change beliefs  Perhaps the simplest way to resolve dissonance between actions and beliefs is simply to change your beliefs.   This would take care of any dissonance.

 Change actions  A second option would be to make sure that you never do this action again.  you may say to yourself that you will never cheat in a test again, and this may aid in resolving the dissonance.

 Change perception of action  A third and more complex method of resolution is to change the way you view/remember/perceive your action. , you would "rationalize" your actions. For example,.  Or you may say to yourself that everyone cheats so why not you? In other words, you think about your action in a different manner or context so that it no longer appears to be inconsistent with your beliefs.

 Why is Cognitive Dissonance Important?  Cognitive dissonance plays a role in many value judgments, decisions and evaluations. Becoming aware of how conflicting beliefs impact the decision- making process is a great way to improve your ability to make faster and more accurate choices.