Research Report on Cognitive Dissonance
by Marion Dudas
I read an article from the book In Persuasion: Theory and Research by Daniel O'Keefe where he explores the different aspects on the theory of Cognitive Dissonance. He defines Cognitive Dissonance as the relations among cognitive elements, which are any belief, opinion, attitude or piece of knowledge about anything. This can be an example of different people, objects, or even oneself.
There are different relations between cognitive elements. The first one is an irrelevant relation in which the two elements have nothing to do with each other. The next relation is a consonant relation in which the two elements form a package. The last one being a dissonant relation in which the two items are inconsistent with each other. Dissonance is defined as a aversive motivational state. This said in layman's terms is an unpleasant mental feeling. People try to avoid dissonance at all costs, or if they do experience dissonance do anything they can to try to reduce the feeling.
There are two different magnitudes of dissonance that O'Keefe defines in his book. The first is the relative proportions of consonant and dissonant elements. For example, say that you are a college student who likes to party on the weekends. You can look at drinking alcohol in two ways. The first is the consonant way - alcohol makes you loosen up, have fun, fit in at parties, and be social with all different kinds of people. The dissonant view of alcohol drinking may be that you drink so much it makes you ill, your schoolwork may be slipping, or it may eventually lead to alcoholism. How much dissonance you experience depends on the relative size of the consonant or dissonant clusters. The second magnitude of dissonance is the importance of the element or issue that you are feeling dissonant about. For example, the greater importance you assign to becoming an alcoholic, the more dissonant you may feel about partying all the time.
There are three different research applications that O'Keefe cited in his book to help explain the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance.
#1 - Decision-Making - The essence of this application is dissonance arises after a decision or choice has been made. There is a sequence involving four steps in the decision making process.
The first step is conflict. The choice involved never exists without some type of conflict. The amount of conflict involved depends on the initial evaluations of the alternatives. Dissonance is greater the more attractive the options are to each other.
The second step is Decision and Dissonance. No matter what happens, there are going to be some aspects of the situation that are going to be dissonant with the choice that is made between two alternatives.
The third step is Dissonance Reduction. In this step you re-evaluate the alternatives that you have. This is possible in two ways. You can reduce dissonance by changing the relative proportions of the consonant and dissonant elements. You can also alter the importance of the issue or the elements involved.
The fourth, but not really a last step is regret. Regret occurs after the decision has been made, but before dissonance has been reduced. Dissonance commonly increases during the regret stage. Keep in mind that this stage does not occur in every situation.
#2 - Selective Exposure to Information - In this application, people will be drawn towards information that is supportive of their beliefs and turned away from information that is not supportive of their beliefs. People are drawn towards information that they have a greater use for. Hence, it has a greater utility to them. Curiosity is the thing that will get people to look towards different information.
#3 - Forced Compliance - This application occurs when someone acts in a way that is contrary to the way that they are used to acting. The main point in this application is something called counterattitudinal advocacy, which occurs when the person advocates a viewpoint contrary to their usual position. The amount of dissonance the person experiences depends on how large the incentive is for the person to make that choice. Large incentives equal less dissonance. Small incentives equal more dissonance. The most dissonance occurs if the offer was just enough to induce the action. That means that the person was not completely positive that they were acting in the right situation. Freedom of choice is an important factor in reducing dissonance.
Evaluation
I think that this article explained the theory of cognitive dissonance pretty well. O'Keefe's writing was easy to understand and interesting to read. I realized while reading this article that a lot of what he says was true. I can apply a lot of examples from what has happened to me to the theory of cognitive dissonance. I do not think that there is one person out there who has not experienced cognitive dissonance often in their life. I think everyone makes decisions that they later think maybe they should not have. Cognitive dissonance is a part of every person's life, but now I can identify it a lot better then I have ever been able to before.
Go back to Traci's title page.
Get a look at more information about Cognitive Dissonance.
Cognitive Dissonance is related to Fantasy Theme Theory. Fantasy Theme theory involves relating things in everyday life to fantasy. This applies to Cognitive Dissonance in the way that people try to reduce dissonance by believing what they want to believe. Fantasies let us believe what we want to by giving us that filter.
O'Keefe, Daniel J. "Cognitive Dissonance." Persuasion: Theory and Research., Sage: California, 1990.
This page was last revised by Marion Dudas (http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~md413097/CD.htm) on November 17,1999.