COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

Cognitive Dissonance 1957 Leon Festinger

Cognitive Dissonance 1957 Leon Festinger

Introduction

The concept of cognitive dissonance in psychology refers to the internal tension or dysfunction of the system of ideas, beliefs, emotions and attitudes (cognitions) that a person perceives the same time to keep two thoughts that are in conflict or behavior that conflicts with their beliefs. That is the term refers to the perceived incompatibility of two simultaneous cognitions.

The concept was first formulated in 1957 by the American psychologist, of Russian origin, Leon Festinger in his book "A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance". He said that the person is automatically motivated to try to generate new ideas and beliefs to reduce the tension to get the set of his ideas and attitudes fit together, forming a certain internal consistency. So the subject will try to reduce the inconsistency to achieve harmony (Cooper, 2007).

Leon Festinger shared his brilliance with the world when he, opposing all previous psychological behaviorist work, created the Cognitive Dissonance Theory. In his own words, he quickly sums up this quite complex theory: "If you change a person's behavior, his thoughts and feelings will change to minimize the dissonance". The way in which occurs the reduction of dissonance can take different paths or ways. One is a remarkable change of attitude or ideas to reality. When dissonance is present, try to reduce it, the person actively avoids situations and information that could probably increase it. The ways of reducing dissonance include cognitive, behavioral change, for example, as I know smoking is bad, let it, change environmental, cognitive element (for example, I cannot jump the black tile in the dining room, so decide to make a hole in the ground as it makes the act of jumping easier) or introduce new cognitive elements (e.g., I know smoking is bad, but I do not want to leave it, so to reduce the cognitive dissonance I think that chance of dying from lung cancer is negligible if you compare with the possibility of having a car accident).

Consequences of Decisions

The theory says that the dissonance is an inevitable consequence of the decision. The magnitude of the post-decisional dissonance has become dependent hypothetically the following factors: the importance of the decision, the appeal on the alternative chosen and not chosen, and the degree of overlap of items relating to cognitive alternatives (e.g. do not know if going to a concert or a friend's house but ...