With undue influence, the cult-identity controls the real personality and control is exerted from the outside, so the locus of control is with the cult, through the cult-identity. Identical modes of physiological arousal [38,57] and ACC activation [62,63,66,68] follow from a wide array of divergent inconsistencies that follow from equally unrelated expectations, whether they are ‘low-level’ or ‘high-level,’ ‘negative’ or ‘positive’ [39,58,59]. In the coming years, we believe that it is inevitable that psychologists of differing disciplines will question the utility of offering wholly ‘distinct’ motivational accounts for each instantiation of this general inconsistency compensation phenomenon.
Discussing discrepant behavior
Consumers often experience cognitive dissonance when making purchasing decisions based on price. If they perceive a product as too expensive, but they still buy it, they may feel dissonance between the price paid and the product’s perceived value. Every decision you make presents an opportunity for cognitive dissonance. When facing a decision between two similar options, for example, you feel dissonance because both are equally appealing.
Social pressures
If a person’s motivation and ability to think are very high, however, then expertise should not affect attitudes or compliance since they will be based primarily on a careful evaluation of the issue-relevant arguments presented. Therapy analog studies by Heesaker, Petty, and Cacioppo (1983) have provided support for this general line of reasoning. Cognitive dissonance theory might suggest that since votes are an expression of preference or beliefs, even the act of voting might cause someone to defend the actions of the candidate for whom they voted,[83][self-published source?
Cognitive Dissonance: Festinger’s Theory
People acquire new information through social learning (Sect. 4.2) that encourages them to help (Berkowitz, Rushton, Staub) or to aggress (Bandura). As people learn by doing, they are socially influenced by self-consistency and commitment, according to another of Cialdini’s compliance principles. Just as theories describe how familiar others are liked, perhaps because easily understood, other theories emphasize dislike of dissimilar others, as in theories of stigma offered separately by Goffman, Jones, and Katz. Category-based theories of impression formation (Sect. 3.1) describe how negative out-group categories stimulate negative understanding. Mere knowledge of the stereotypes about one’s group creates stereotype threat (Steele), undermining the performance of distracted, frustrated, targets of stereotyping. Focusing on understanding via deliberate control, far from gestalt perspectives, two subjective expected utility models predict attitude–behavior relations.
Reducing the Importance of the Conflicting Belief
This alignment reduces the likelihood of dissonance and enhances the effectiveness of marketing efforts. Cognitive dissonance can impact actions and decision-making at various levels of engagement. Here are a few examples of how cognitive dissonance can affect our everyday lives. The degree to which your target audience experiences cognitive dissonance depends on several factors.
What cognitive dissonance feels like
- Justifying that way might seem like a way of being dishonest with yourself, but it’s perfectly natural, says Michele Leno, PhD, a psychologist and the founder of DML Psychological Services in Farmington Hills, Michigan.
- After all, participants who had told a lie for $20 felt that they could justify the lie because they were paid relatively well (in other words, receiving the large sum of money reduced their feelings of dissonance).
- In other words, they were more likely than participants in the other two conditions to increase the attractiveness of the chosen alternative and to decrease the attractiveness of the unchosen alternative.
- Because the mental or emotional distress it can cause can definitely affect your health and well-being.
- When cognitive dissonance theory was first presented, three experimental paradigms (namely decision justification, effort justification and induced compliance behaviour) were used to empirically test and provide evidence to support the theory.
Specifically, people will seek out others who are close to one’s own opinions and abilities for comparison because accurate comparisons are difficult when others are too divergent from those of oneself. To use Festinger’s example, a chess novice does not compare his chess abilities to those of recognized chess masters,[48] nor does a college student compare his intellectual abilities to those of a toddler. In addition to these emotional experiences, cognitive dissonance can also inspire a change in your behavior or beliefs. Some of these changes can be positive, such as shifting problematic beliefs or harmful habits. Being more mindful and recognizing when you’re experiencing cognitive dissonance can motivate you to change whatever is not consistent in your life. In doing so, you’ll get back to that place of harmony, and you’ll likely be happier as a result.
Social behavior
Rather than trying to reduce dissonance after it occurs, we may attempt to avoid dissonance through selective exposure. In other words, consumers select attitude-consistent information and avoid attitude-challenging information. This can be applied to media, news, music, and any other messaging channel. The idea is, choosing something that is in opposition to how you feel or believe in will render cognitive dissonance.
What Influences Cognitive Dissonance?
- After listing in on the discussion, subjects were asked to evaluate how interesting they found it.
- Recognizing the disparity between thoughts or actions is what causes dissonance — and makes you feel the need to return to harmony.
- Life is filled with decisions, and decisions (as a general rule) arouse dissonance.
- It can become problematic if it leads you to justify or rationalize behaviors that could be harmful.
- In romantic relationships, important values represent hotspots for cognitive dissonance and typically center on big decisions, such as the wish to have children, lifestyle choices (e.g., buying a house vs. traveling the world), and issues related to family and friends.
- Heider’s balance theory posits that perceivers prefer similarly evaluated people and things also to belong together.
Inconsistencies between beliefs and actions, or between two beliefs or values, happen all the time, but that doesn’t mean they’re enjoyable. “When a person is holding themselves in contradictory stances, attempting to hold opposing viewpoints, they have cognitive dissonance addiction to expend mental energy to block out their own hypocrisy,” Curry says. “While this can be helpful sometimes, it can also lead us to compromise important values or beliefs we may not want to change, and can cause internal conflict,” Leikam says.
Science-Based Ways To Apply Positive CBT
Festinger and Carlsmith wanted to create a feeling of dissonance in participants—in this case, their belief (that lying should be avoided) is at odds with their action (they just lied to someone). Sometimes, the ways that people resolve cognitive dissonance contribute to unhealthy behaviors or poor decisions. Cognitive dissonance can often have a powerful influence on our behaviors and actions. It doesn’t just influence how you feel; it also motivates you to take action to reduce feelings of discomfort.
While cognitive dissonance is often described as something widely and regularly experienced, efforts to capture it in studies don’t always work, so it could be less common than has been assumed. People do not necessarily experience discomfort in response to every apparent contradiction in their thoughts and beliefs. The Zajonc mere exposure theory describes people favoring people and objects encountered frequently. Similarly, people are attracted to people in propinquity (close proximity) (Festinger, Schachter, and Back), perhaps because of exposure. Although explained in non-cognitive terms, familiarity effects fit the principle of liking those who seem comfortable, safe, and easily understood.