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| cognitive dissonance | |
|---|---|
| Name | Cognitive dissonance |
| Field | Psychology |
| Introduced | 1957 |
| Founder | Leon Festinger |
| Related | Attitude change; Self-perception theory; Motivated reasoning |
cognitive dissonance
Cognitive dissonance is a psychological theory describing the mental discomfort experienced when individuals hold conflicting cognitions, such as beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors. It explains diverse phenomena in decision making, social influence, and attitude change across contexts involving public figures, institutions, and historical events. The theory has been integrated into research concerning human behavior during crises, policy debates, and organizational change.
The theory proposes that inconsistency among cognitive elements creates aversive arousal that motivates efforts to restore consonance, a process observed in studies involving Leon Festinger, Philip Zimbardo, Stanley Milgram, Albert Bandura, and Solomon Asch. Core constructs are often discussed alongside models developed at Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Chicago, Columbia University, and University of Michigan. Explanations draw on empirical traditions from work by B.F. Skinner, Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, and Kurt Lewin and interface with theoretical frameworks used by Daniel Kahneman, Amos Tversky, Herbert Simon, Milton Friedman, and John Maynard Keynes in decision sciences. Theoretical extensions engage with concepts used in research at institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, Princeton University, University of Oxford, and University of Cambridge.
Festinger introduced the concept in the context of 20th-century social psychology alongside empirical programs led by researchers at University of Minnesota, University of Pennsylvania, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, and Cornell University. Subsequent developments involved critiques and refinements by scholars connected to Columbia University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Ohio State University, New York University, and University of Toronto. Major historical debates intersected with public controversies associated with events like Watergate scandal, Vietnam War, Civil Rights Movement, Soviet Union, and World War II, as scholars compared dissonance explanations with alternatives advanced by figures such as Carl Rogers, Erik Erikson, Noam Chomsky, and Claude Lévi-Strauss.
Mechanisms proposed include dissonance-induced arousal, selective exposure, and cognitive reappraisal, processes investigated in laboratories at Bell Labs, Salk Institute, Rockefeller University, National Institutes of Health, and Max Planck Society. Researchers have examined physiological correlates with equipment developed at MIT Media Lab, Johns Hopkins University, Karolinska Institute, University of California, San Diego, and Imperial College London. Models of reduction involve strategies documented in studies referencing figures and institutions like Margaret Mead, Edward T. Hall, Gordon Allport, E. O. Wilson, and Mary Ainsworth, and connect to applied programs at World Health Organization, United Nations, Red Cross, Amnesty International, and Doctors Without Borders.
Seminal experiments by Festinger and collaborators were complemented by paradigms developed by researchers at Stanford Prison Experiment-adjacent teams, work by Philip Zimbardo, and obedience studies associated with Milgram; other empirical traditions emerged from cognitive laboratories at Yale University and Princeton University. Measurement approaches include self-report scales, physiological indices, and behavioral choice tasks used in studies involving cohorts from Harvard Medical School, Mayo Clinic, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, London School of Economics, and Australia National University. Findings reveal predictable patterns of attitude change after induced compliance, post-decisional spreading of alternatives in experiments reminiscent of tradeoffs studied in contexts like Oklahoma City bombing aftermath analyses, mergers at General Electric, and policy shifts in administrations such as Johnson administration and Reagan administration.
Applications span domains where prominent organizations and leaders confront inconsistency: corporate strategy at firms like General Motors, IBM, Apple Inc., Toyota Motor Corporation, and Microsoft; public policy in episodes involving United Nations Security Council, European Union, NATO, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund; and legal practice in cases adjudicated by Supreme Court of the United States, International Court of Justice, European Court of Human Rights, and tribunals such as Nuremberg Trials. Clinical interventions and health messaging draw on research applied in programs by National Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Psychological Association, Royal Society, and Institute of Medicine. Political communication, media framing, and advocacy leverage dissonance-related strategies in campaigns by parties like Democratic Party (United States), Republican Party (United States), Labour Party (UK), and movements comparable to Black Lives Matter and Women’s suffrage.
Critiques arise from proponents of Self-perception theory associated with Daryl Bem and from scholars in cognitive neuroscience at MIT, Caltech, Columbia University, University College London, and ETH Zurich who emphasize prediction error and reinforcement learning frameworks advanced by researchers like Wolfram Schultz, Peter Dayan, Karl Friston, David Marr, and Giulio Tononi. Alternative accounts invoke motivated reasoning developed by authors connected to Princeton University, Stanford University, Yale University, and University of Chicago and are debated alongside methodological critiques published in journals affiliated with American Psychological Association, Association for Psychological Science, and publishers such as Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.