Principles of Communication

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CHAPTER 16 COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY

Outline

I. Dissonance: discord between behavior and belief. A. Identified by Leon Festinger, cognitive dissonance is the distressing mental state

that people feel when they find themselves doing things that don’t fit with what they know, or having opinions that do not fit with other opinions they hold.

B. Humans have a basic need to avoid dissonance and establish consistency. C. The tension of dissonance motivates the person to change either the behavior or the

belief. D. The more important the issue and the greater the discrepancy, the higher the

magnitude of dissonance.

II. Three hypotheses: ways to reduce dissonance between attitudes and actions. A. Hypothesis #1: selective exposure prevents dissonance.

1. We avoid information that is likely to increase dissonance. 2. Selective exposure works only when we anticipate hearing ideas that run counter

to our beliefs. 3. Dieter Frey concluded that selective exposure exists only when information is

known to be a threat. 4. Warm personal relationships are the best environment for considering

discrepant views. B. Hypothesis #2: postdecision dissonance creates a need for reassurance.

1. The more important the issue, the more dissonance. 2. The longer an individual delays a choice between two equally attractive options,

the more dissonance. 3. The greater the difficulty involving reversing the decision once it has been made,

the more dissonance. C. Hypothesis #3: minimal justification for action induces a shift in attitude.

1. Conventional wisdom suggests that to change behavior, you must first alter attitude.

2. Festinger reverses the sequence. 3. In addition, he predicts that attitude change and dissonance reduction depend

on providing only a minimum justification for the change in behavior.

III. A classic experiment: “Would I lie for a dollar?” A. Festinger’s minimal justification hypothesis is counterintuitive. B. The Stanford $1/$20 experiment supported the minimal justification hypothesis

because subjects who received a very small reward demonstrated a change in attitude.

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IV. State-of-the-art revisions: the cause and effect of dissonance. A. Most persuasion researchers today subscribe to one of three revisions of Festinger’s

original theory. B. Self-consistency: the rationalizing animal.

1. Elliot Aronson argued that dissonance is caused by psychological rather than logical inconsistency.

2. Humans aren’t rational, they are rationalizing. 3. Research such as the $1/$20 experiment provides evidence of self-esteem

maintenance. 4. The amount of dissonance a person can experience is directly proportional to the

effort he or she has invested in the behavior. C. Personal responsibility for bad outcomes (the new look).

1. Joel Cooper argues that it’s the knowledge that one’s actions have unnecessarily hurt another person that generates dissonance.

2. Cooper concludes that dissonance is a state of arousal caused by behaving in such a way as to feel personally responsible for bringing about an aversive event.

D. Self-affirmation to dissipate dissonance. 1. Claude Steele focuses on dissonance reduction. 2. He believes that high self-esteem is a resource for dissonance reduction. 3. Steele asserts that most people are motivated to maintain a self-image of moral

and adaptive adequacy. E. These three revisions of Festinger’s theory are not mutually exclusive.

V. Theory into practice: persuasion through dissonance. A. Festinger’s theory offers practical advice for those who wish to effect attitude

change as a product of dissonance. B. Apply the concepts of selective exposure, postdecision dissonance, and minimal

justification to manage dissonance effectively. C. As long as counterattitudinal actions are freely chosen and publicly taken, people

are more likely to adopt beliefs that support what they’ve done. D. Personal responsibility for negative outcomes should be taken into account.

VI. Critique: dissonance over dissonance. A. Cognitive dissonance may not be falsifiable. B. Festinger never specified a reliable way to detect the degree of dissonance a person

experiences. 1. Patricia Devine applauds researchers who have attempted to gauge the arousal

component of dissonance. C. Daryl Bem believes that self-perception is a much simpler explanation of attitude

change than cognitive dissonance is. 1. His version of the $1/$20 experiment supports his contention. 2. Bem suggests that cognitive dissonance does not follow the rule of parsimony.

D. Despite detractors, cognitive dissonance theory has energized objective scholars of communication for 45 years.

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Key Names and Terms Leon Festinger

A former Stanford University social psychologist and creator of the theory of cognitive dissonance.

Cognitive Dissonance The distressing mental state caused by inconsistency between a person’s two beliefs or a belief and an action; an adverse motivation to change a belief.

Selective Exposure The principle that people pay attention only to ideas they already believe because discrepant information would be mentally distressing.

Dieter Frey A German psychologist who concluded that selective exposure exists only when information is known to be a threat.

Postdecision Dissonance Distressing doubts about the wisdom of a decision after it has been made; the resulting need for reassurance is highest the more the decision was important, difficult, or irrevocable.

Minimal Justification Hypothesis The best way to achieve private attitudinal change is to offer just enough reward or punishment to elicit public compliance.

$1/$20 Experiment Festinger and James Carlsmith’s famous and controversial test of the minimal justification hypothesis, which has been replicated and reinterpreted by many other researchers.

Elliot Aronson A University of California social psychologist who argued that cognitive dissonance is caused by psychological—rather than logical—inconsistency.

Joel Cooper A Princeton University psychologist who argues that dissonance is caused by the knowledge that one’s actions have unnecessarily hurt another person.

Claude Steele A Stanford University psychologist who argues that high self-esteem is a resource for dissonance reduction.

Patricia Devine A University of Wisconsin–Madison psychologist who believes that dissonance needs to be measured more accurately, particularly by a self-report measure of affect.

Daryl Bem A Cornell University psychologist who argues that self-perception is a much simpler explanation of attitude change than is cognitive dissonance.