Motivation Cognitive Dissonance, Self-Perception, Expectancy-Value

For example, a recent study (Mahapatra & Mishra, 2021) showed that customers who faced post-consumption cognitive dissonance took multiple actions to negate the experienced psychological discomfort. They sought support from like-minded people and mentally disconnected from the negative situation to reduce the negative emotions. Refining the terminology used in CDT could not only clarify the theory, but also impact the whole conception of the theory regarding ways to cope with “dissonance” (Vaidis and Bran, 2018). In Festinger’s view (1957), regulation strategies are supposed to reduce “dissonance,” but does that mean resolving the inconsistency or does that mean alleviating the arousal?

The two thoughts – ‘sunbathing can cause cancer’ and ‘I am sunbathing’ – will cause the discomfort of cognitive dissonance. That slight feeling of discomfort we perceive when noticing this mismatch is called cognitive dissonance. Suspicion probes are meant to inform researchers about how participants’ beliefs may have influenced the outcome of a study, but it remains unclear what these unverified probes are https://ecosoberhouse.com/ really measuring or how they are currently being used. There are also individual differences in whether or not people act as this theory predicts. Many people seem able to cope with considerable dissonance and not experience the tensions the theory predicts. In other words, he could tell himself that a short life filled with smoking and sensual pleasures is better than a long life devoid of such joys.

How Attitude Change Takes Place

As you can imagine, participant’s attitudes toward this task were highly negative. By using these types of explanations, the smoker is able to reduce the dissonance and continue the unhealthy behavior. People who learn that greenhouse emissions result in global warming might experience feelings of dissonance if they drive a gas-guzzling vehicle. To reduce this dissonance, they may seek out new information that overrides the belief that greenhouse gasses contribute to global warming. Cognitive dissonance can be caused by feeling forced to do something, learning new information, or when faced with a decision between two similar choices.

Not so distinct from measurement of subjective intensity, its main interest is that this can be done in parallel to the previous approaches to provide convergent validity. Finally, the development of an efficient tool to assess the CDS should probably rely on multiple measures. This issue could be fixed by redefinition of core concepts and a paradigm change for a systematic manipulation of inconsistency. The easiest way to achieve this would be to compare counter-attitudinal tasks to neutral or pro-attitudinal tasks.

Human Motivation

The Review of General Psychology listed him as one of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century. He is also the recipient of the Donald Campbell Award, the Gordon Allport Prize and the Association for Psychological Science (APS) William James Fellow Award for his lifetime of significant intellectual contributions to the basic science of psychology. The CDT field is fruitful, with hundreds of studies covering a large array of tasks and topics.

Coping mechanisms can include justifying their behavior (and our relationship with them), trivializing their behavior or the importance of it, attempting to change their behavior, or changing our own behavior. When our friends or partners act contrary to our beliefs and values, we perceive dissonance. Therapy can help patients by reflecting on and taking control of their thoughts.

Connectivity to Broader Theories

However, this mode of dissonance reduction frequently presents problems for people, as it is often difficult for people to change well-learned behavioral responses (e.g., giving up smoking). When there is an inconsistency between attitudes or behaviors (dissonance), something must change to eliminate the dissonance. Maslow has proposed that cognitive dissonance and addiction human motivation can be understood as resulting from a hierarchy of needs. These needs, starting with the most basic physiological demands, progress upward through safety needs, belonging needs, and esteem needs and culminate in self-actualization. Each level directs behaviour toward the need level that is not being adequately met.

In this way, he would be decreasing the importance of dissonant cognition (smoking is bad for one’s health). When one of the dissonant elements is a behavior, the individual can change or eliminate the behavior. If we put effort into a task that we have chosen to carry out, and the task turns out badly, we experience dissonance. To reduce this dissonance, we are motivated to try to think that the task turned out well. In an intriguing experiment, Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) asked participants to perform a series of dull tasks (such as turning pegs in a peg board for an hour).

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

We do not recommend investing resources in large scale replication projects of earlier studies. Indeed, as we stressed previously, these studies have methodological flaws that limit their interpretation. Instead of replicating the errors made in the past, resources should be devoted to developing reliable, smart, and well-powered tests of the theory and of its hypotheses. To limit the bias, these designs should be computer based to avoid experimenter effects (e.g., Rosenthal and Rosnow, 1969). Using standardized scripts should also facilitate replications and variations all over the globe. Moreover, with a little help from the community, crowdsourced research tools (e.g., Collaborative Replications and Education Project, 2018; Moshontz et al., 2018) could allow a rapid, clear and high powered evaluation of the theory.