Cognitive Dissonance: Mental Harmony Above All Else

Cognitive dis­son­ance shapes our beliefs and decisions.

No one likes to feel uncom­fort­able. This is also true for com­mu­nic­a­tion; most people would rather do any­thing to avoid pro­cessing con­flict­ing inform­a­tion — wheth­er the uncom­fort­able inform­a­tion is true or not.

Today, we’re learn­ing more about cog­nit­ive dissonance.

Here we go:

The Famous Theory: Cognitive Dissonance

The the­ory of cog­nit­ive dis­son­ance, for­mu­lated by American social psy­cho­lo­gist Leon Festinger in the late 1950s, is a corner­stone concept in psy­cho­logy, par­tic­u­larly in under­stand­ing human motiv­a­tion and behaviour.

“Cognitive dis­son­ance is a dis­tress­ing men­tal state in which people feel they are act­ing or hold­ing opin­ions that do not fit with their know­ledge or beliefs.”
Source: Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology ¹Cooper, J. (2012). Cognitive dis­son­ance the­ory. Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology: Volume 1, 377 – 397. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​4​1​3​5​/​9​7​8​1​4​4​6​2​4​9​2​1​5​.​N19

The cog­nit­ive dis­son­ance the­ory pos­its that indi­vidu­als nat­ur­ally seek con­sist­ency among their cog­ni­tions (i.e., beliefs, opin­ions, and know­ledge). An incon­sist­ency between atti­tudes or beha­viours (dis­son­ance) cre­ates a state of psy­cho­lo­gic­al dis­com­fort, lead­ing the indi­vidu­al to attempt to reduce the dis­son­ance and achieve con­son­ance (con­sist­ency).

“Emotions play a cru­cial role in main­tain­ing and chan­ging beliefs and atti­tudes, with cog­nit­ive dis­son­ance the­ory sug­gest­ing that neg­at­ive emo­tions can motiv­ate cog­nit­ive work to reduce cog­nit­ive incon­sist­en­cies.”
Source: Cambridge University Press ²Harmon-Jones, E. (2000). A cog­nit­ive dis­son­ance the­ory per­spect­ive on the role of emo­tion in the main­ten­ance and change of beliefs and atti­tudes. Cambridge University Press, 185 – 211. … Continue read­ing

Cognitive dis­son­ance can occur in vari­ous situ­ations, such as when a per­son’s beha­viour con­flicts with their self-image, new inform­a­tion con­tra­dicts deeply held beliefs, or when a decision con­flicts with choices.

Examples of irra­tion­al beha­viours when exper­i­en­cing dis­com­fort caused by dissonance:

A Widely Influential Theory

The the­ory of cog­nit­ive dis­son­ance has been widely influ­en­tial in psy­cho­logy and fields like mar­ket­ing, pub­lic rela­tions, and decision-mak­ing stud­ies. It has helped explain vari­ous beha­viours, from small-scale per­son­al decisions to large-scale social and polit­ic­al attitudes.

“Dissonance the­ory has regained pop­ular­ity in social psy­cho­logy, blend­ing cog­ni­tion and motiv­a­tion in a way that has­n’t been seen since the mid-1970s.”
Source: Psychological Inquiry ³Aronson, E. (1992). The Return of the Repressed: Dissonance Theory Makes a Comeback. Psychological Inquiry, 3, 303 – 311. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​2​0​7​/​S​1​5​3​2​7​9​6​5​P​L​I​0​3​0​4_1

Learn more: Cognitive Dissonance: Mental Harmony Above All Else

Reverse Relationship: Actions and Attitudes

Traditionally, it’s been assumed that our actions dir­ectly res­ult from our beliefs and attitudes. 

However, the the­ory of cog­nit­ive dis­son­ance chal­lenges this notion, sug­gest­ing a reverse rela­tion­ship where actions can sig­ni­fic­antly influ­ence beliefs and atti­tudes. This concept implies that when indi­vidu­als engage in beha­viours incon­sist­ent with their beliefs, they often exper­i­ence psy­cho­lo­gic­al dis­com­fort. They may alter their beliefs to align more closely with their actions to alle­vi­ate this discomfort.

“Cognitive dis­son­ance the­ory sug­gests that actions can influ­ence beliefs and atti­tudes, chal­len­ging the belief that actions are the res­ult of beliefs and atti­tudes.”
Source: The Western Journal of Medicine ⁴Harris, N. (1986). Cognitive dis­son­ance. The Western Journal of Medicine, 145 1, 105. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​4​3​3​7​/​9​7​8​1​8​4​3​7​6​8​7​0​8​.​0​0​021

This under­stand­ing is crit­ic­al, espe­cially in fields like pub­lic rela­tions, where influ­en­cing pub­lic beha­viour and atti­tudes is a primary goal. 

For instance, when people are encour­aged to take small actions in favour of a cause or brand, like par­ti­cip­at­ing in a cam­paign or using a sample product, these actions can sub­con­sciously alter their atti­tudes to be more favour­able towards that cause or brand.

“Cognitive dis­son­ance is exper­i­enced as psy­cho­lo­gic­al dis­com­fort, which is alle­vi­ated by imple­ment­ing atti­tude change strategies, sup­port­ing Festinger’s concept of dis­son­ance as a motiv­a­tion­al state.”
Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology ⁵Elliot, A., & Devine, P. (1994). On the motiv­a­tion­al nature of cog­nit­ive dis­son­ance: Dissonance as psy­cho­lo­gic­al dis­com­fort. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 382 – 394. … Continue read­ing

Cognitive Dissonance and Negative Emotions

Cognitive dis­son­ance affects how indi­vidu­als per­ceive and react to inform­a­tion and influ­ences their inform­a­tion-seek­ing beha­viour, espe­cially under the influ­ence of neg­at­ive emotions. 

“Cognitive dis­son­ance leads indi­vidu­als to seek con­gru­ent inform­a­tion and avoid coun­ter­at­ti­tu­din­al inform­a­tion, but only when exper­i­en­cing neg­at­ive emo­tions.”
Source: Media Psychology ⁶Tsang, S. (2019). Cognitive Discrepancy, Dissonance, and Selective Exposure. Media Psychology, 22, 394 – 417. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​0​8​0​/​1​5​2​1​3​2​6​9​.​2​0​1​7​.​1​2​8​2​873

Cognitive dis­son­ance becomes par­tic­u­larly pro­nounced when neg­at­ive emo­tions are involved. For example, in the con­text of a pub­lic rela­tions crisis, stake­hold­ers who feel anxious or upset about a situ­ation are more likely to seek inform­a­tion that con­firms their exist­ing per­cep­tions and ignore any con­tra­dict­ory evidence. 

This select­ive inform­a­tion pro­cessing, rooted in the desire to alle­vi­ate emo­tion­al dis­com­fort, can pose a sig­ni­fic­ant chal­lenge for PR professionals. 

It under­scores the need for care­fully craf­ted mes­sages that acknow­ledge and address these emo­tion­al states, ensur­ing that the com­mu­nic­a­tion strategy effect­ively pen­et­rates these cog­nit­ive barriers.

Leon Festinger (1919 – 1989)

Who was Leon Festinger?

Leon Festinger was a prom­in­ent American social psy­cho­lo­gist and research­er, most fam­ous for devel­op­ing the the­ory of cog­nit­ive dis­son­ance in the late 1950s. Born on May 8, 1919, and passing away on February 11, 1989, Festinger made sig­ni­fic­ant con­tri­bu­tions to the field of social psy­cho­logy, leav­ing a last­ing impact through his innov­at­ive the­or­ies and research.

Festinger’s most not­able con­tri­bu­tion to psy­cho­logy, the the­ory of cog­nit­ive dis­son­ance, revolu­tion­ised the under­stand­ing of human beha­viour and motiv­a­tion. This the­ory pro­poses that people exper­i­ence psy­cho­lo­gic­al dis­com­fort, known as cog­nit­ive dis­son­ance, when they hold con­tra­dict­ory beliefs, atti­tudes, or beha­viours. To alle­vi­ate this dis­com­fort, indi­vidu­als are motiv­ated to change their beliefs, atti­tudes, or beha­viours to achieve consistency.

“Cognitive Dissonance is a real phe­nomen­on that leads to irra­tion­al actions like con­firm­a­tion bias and caus­al self jus­ti­fic­a­tions, as indi­vidu­als seek to reduce the incon­sist­ency between their beliefs and actions.”
Source: Perspectives on Psychological Science ⁷Boek, D. (2011). Cognitive Dissonance. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 101 — 98. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​1​1​7​7​/​1​7​4​5​6​9​1​6​1​0​3​9​3​526

Beyond cog­nit­ive dis­son­ance, Festinger con­trib­uted sig­ni­fic­antly to social com­par­is­on the­ory and the study of social influ­ence and group dynam­ics. His social com­par­is­on the­ory sug­gests that people eval­u­ate their abil­it­ies and opin­ions by com­par­ing them­selves to oth­ers, espe­cially when object­ive bench­marks are unavailable.

Festinger’s work exten­ded to vari­ous oth­er areas, includ­ing research on the effects of group pres­sure on indi­vidu­al judg­ment, the determ­in­ants of beha­viour in social situ­ations, and the psy­cho­lo­gic­al under­pin­nings of pro­pa­ganda. His research meth­ods and the­or­et­ic­al frame­works con­tin­ue to influ­ence con­tem­por­ary psy­cho­logy, mak­ing him one of the key fig­ures in the his­tory of social psychology.

Learn more: Leon Festinger — The Psychologist Behind Cognitive Dissonance

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Psychology in Public Relations

• 58 Logical Fallacies and Cognitive Biases
• Social Group Sizes (The Social Brain Hypothesis)
• The Pitfalls of Groupthink: Decision-Making in Organisations
• Cognitive Dissonance: Mental Harmony Above All Else
• Survivorship Bias — Abraham Wald and the WWII Airplanes
• The Engagement Pyramid (The 90−9−1 Principle)
• 150 — Dunbar’s Number
• Theory of Mind: A Superpower for PR Professionals
• The Amplification Hypothesis: Counter Extreme Arguments
• The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon: Heard About It Before?
• The Halo Effect: Why Attractiveness Matters in PR
• The Paradox of Prominence
• Parkinson’s Law & The Law of Triviality (Bike Shed Effect)
• Diffusion of Innovations

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