Cognitive Dissonance Research Report
on a Daniel O'Keefe Article

by: Gregory Cebular

Cognitive Dissonance theory is made up of many different cognition or elements. These elements are anything we feel or believe in about other people, places, or things. All these elements work together to form three different sorts of relationships: irrelevant, consonant, and dissonant relations. Irrelevant means that the elements have nothing to do with each other. Consonant says that the cognition work along together. Dissonant states that the elements are inconsistent with one another.

Thus, when two elements are dissonant, they have dissonance. When the amount of dissonance starts to vary, so to will pressure to reduce it. Rising dissonance will bring more pressure to reduce it; meanwhile, low dissonance needs little or no pressure.

O'Keefe expresses that there are two factors that influence the amount of dissonance. One being measuring the different consonant and dissonant elements. Each one of the relations band into two different clusters of consonant cognition and dissonant cognitives. The more consonant elements there are the lesser the dissonance. Likewise, the more dissonant elements, the larger the dissonance. The second factor in influencing dissonance is how important the elements are. If one holds their consonants higher than their dissonants, then there is less dissonance, even if more dissonants are present. If dissonants are higher in importance, then there will be more dissonance.

Also in this article are two different means of reducing dissonance. The first way to reduce dissonance is to change the existing consonant to dissonant proportion. This can occur a couple ways. One, by adding a new consonant element to the old ones. This being if the person finds a new belief to do something. Another would be by removing or changing a dissonant. Removing a dissonant will change the consonant to dissonant ratio to greater favor the consonants, thus lessening dissonance. The second way to reduce dissonance is to change the importance of the elements that are involved. Just deciding that one of the dissonants really does not matter that much does this. It can also be done by realizing that one of the consonants is very important to the person, more important than any of the other consonants or dissonants.

Daniel O'Keefe shows in this article that Cognitive Dissonance is nothing more than weighing out all that encompasses a decision. In every decision there is going to be at least a dissonant or two, with a little dissonance. There is nothing we can do about that. Cognitive Dissonance theory tells us, as O'Keefe explains, that the persuasiveness is in what we feel important to us. Persuasiveness relies heavily on our values. We can enjoy our consonants, but if we hold one of the dissonants higher, because it holds the most value to us. Then there will be much dissonance, and we will be forced to live with the dissonance or quit the activity. Our value system can change dissonance very strongly. Values are keep dear to us, and if we do not take them into consideration, we are not bettering ourselves.

Cognitive Dissonance is what happens to us after we make a decision. We will have dissonance. We will have consonants and dissonants. We must make a decision though. Which, the consonants or the dissonants, are more important to us. If the consonants are more liked and important than there is no real dissonance to worry about. But if the dissonants are more important than there will be a lot of dissonance. With much dissonance, pressure follows to try to relieve some dissonance. Cognitive Dissonance is our weighing out of good and bad effects and consequences of our decision. We can stick with our decision, work on our decision, or change our decision. This persuasion process is not systematic like O'Keefe states in his article, but is rather a freelance process which we can come to conclusions what ever way we want.



For more information check out:
O'Keefe, Daniel, Persuasion: theory and research, SAGE Publications, Newbury Park, CA, 1990.



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Cognitive Dissonance is related to Relational Dialectics through the pros and cons that pull a person one way and one person another way. To take a look at Relational Dialectic theory CLICK HERE

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