Research Paper on "“Cognitive Dissonance” in Persuasion- Communication Major

Adams, J. S., Berkowitz, L. & Hatfield, E. (1976). Equity theory: Towards the general

theory of social interaction. New York: Academic Press.

The three authors of this book consider the theory of cognitive dissonance as, one that proposes that individuals should have motivational drive that reduces dissonance by way of altering the existing forms of cognitions. They also propose that the drive should also form new consistent belief systems, or even reduce the significance of any single element of dissonance. They consider the theory as one based on the proposition that if a person has two forms of cognitions which may be inconsistent with one another, he or she will experience some pressure of a motivational state referred to as cognitive dissonance. They argue that if a person has two forms of cognitions which may be inconsistent with one another, he or she will experience some pressure of a motivational state referred to as cognitive dissonance. This pressure seeks to alter either of the dissonant cognition. This book acts a source that identifies the major propositions within which the theory lies.

Akerlof, G. A., & Dickens, W. T. (1982). Economic consequences of cognitive

Dissonance. American economic review, 72(3): 307–319.

In this book, Akerlof and Dickens came up with an economic model of the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance. The two explain the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance using three simplified propositions. The first one they consider is the development of preferences of the actual state in addition to the traditional assumption over the actual state of the world; they also tend to have preferences over their own beliefs of the actual state of the world. They give an example of people believing that they are smart and compassionate. The other proposition is that people can only control their beliefs partially. They tend to belief what they choose to, if given some information. They also always chose the information to listen to. According to the authors, people prefer to think themselves as smarter, and they always tend to ignore any information that may suggest they made a wrong decision. The last proposition is that, once a particular person tends to choose his beliefs, they always persist over time.

Cooper, J. (2007). Cognitive dissonance: Fifty years of a classic theory. Los Angeles: SAGE Publ.

In his book, Cooper identifies cognitive dissonance as one of the most influential form of theories in the field of social psychology. He considers its oldest realization as the choice induced sort of dissonance. He claims that people always tend to rationalize past choices by way of devaluing the rejected alternatives and instead upgrading the embraced ones. He refers to this process as preference spreading. He demonstrates that every study he tested suffered from a fundamental form of methodological flaw. His analysis assumes that before any choices are made, the preferences of a subject can perfectly be measured with accurate precision, and under appreciate the fact that the choice of a subject reflects on their preferences.

Festinger, L. (1957). Theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University

Press.

This is a book that focuses on Festinger’s research that was conducted in the mid-twentieth century. He focused on the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance where he considered an individual’s behavior as being congruent with his or her own perception, belief structures, knowledge structures, feelings, beliefs And central values. Beliefs, behavior, attitudes or the central core values are considered being subject to change in a situation where a person opts to acquire an inner form of equilibrium, known as cognitive consonance back into balance. At such a stage, the individual starts psychological processes that bring the inner self’s current experiences into harmony.

Harmon-Jones, E., & Mills, J. (1999). Cognitive dissonance: Progress on a pivotal theory

in social psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Harmon-Jones and Mills evaluate the choices that can induce rationalization. They reason that mere choice as a form of rationalization may not be adequate. They recommend for a reversal that may significantly alter the normal way of thinking on the whole issue of cognitive dissonance.

Johnson-Laird, P.N. (1983). Towards cognitive science of language, inference and

consciousness. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.

Johnson is a significant cognitive psychologist from Britain whose whole insight lies on the works of cognitive science of logic and the way individuals learn to deal with propositional inferences. His works in this book outline a number of experiments he and his fellow colleagues performed. He argues against the view of the minds that reduce all the mental operations to a particular propositional form of logic. He also argues against accountings that are image based for arguments about the real formation of a propositional logic. This includes works that have been done in analysing whether propositions actually come from analogies of the Venn diagrams and the Euler circles. He claims that reasoning based on propositions purely rests on the knowledge presentations called mental models. These models are considered as spatial tableaus.

Jordan, N., & Institute for Defense Analyses. (1964). Theory of a cognitive dissonance. Washington: Institute for Defense Analyses. Economic and Political,

Studies Div.

Jordan with the support of the Institute for Defense Analyses published a book that examines the idea behind cognitive dissonance. He also examines the psychological literature for evidence of cognitive dissonance. The institution has conducted several psychological experiments that have found evidence on the existence of cognitive dissonance. In an example, race tracking bettors put much higher odds on the horse only after they have made a bet and not before hand. In another survey, he considers subjects asked to treat other forms of subjects cruelly reduce their opinions of the individual they are treating cruelly. This makes them feel that the treatment is justified even though it is cruel. The book assists in identifying the actual sources of dissonance.

Reizenstein, R. C. (1970). An application of the theory of cognitive dissonance to determination of the effectiveness of two principle personal selling techniques.

New York, NY: Ithaca.

The handbook by Reizenstein tries to carry out the tentative assessment of the dissonant cognitive theory. He also in turn proposes a set of criteria that assess the objective theories. They propose the criterion of assessment that involves data explanation, relative simplicity, future events prediction, testability, as well as practical utility. He considers the theory as significantly effective in predicting and explaining the human behavior, even though its real expectations have faced a challenge of receiving weak confirmations and the emergence of unanticipated findings. This source is a handbook that assists in evaluating the significance of dissonance.