Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Megan Reed
Cognitive dissonance theory has been used and applied for many years throughout the
field of Communications and more. Cognitive dissonance theory has proved to be useful in
society situations allowing understand of and sometimes the predictions of certain human
behaviors. As Griffin, Ledbetter, & Sparks (2015) describe it, cognitive dissonance theory is,
"the distressing mental state caused by inconsistency between a person's two beliefs or a belief
and an action" (P. 200). Leon Festinger, a social psychologist as Stanford University, first began
using this theory to explain the inner contradictions formed in smoker's minds when medical
reports began linking cigarettes to lung cancer and other health issues. From that time on,
Cognitive dissonance theory has many facets, including selective exposure, postdecision
reduction process of dissonance, and many more. This allows the theory to break down human
behavior into many pieces, creating an avenue for thorough analysis and possible prediction of
said behavior. The theory starts with the act or belief itself, conflicting with another belief in a
human's mind. This could be, for instance, someone who smokes cigarettes (action), and the
person believing and knowing that smoking cigarettes is bad for their health. This theory relies
on the fact that humans will want to remove these types of mental contradictions in order to
reduce dissonance(Griffin, et al., 2015). There are many ways in which a person can reduce
dissonance, or avoid it all together: (1) Selective exposure, (2) compliance, (3) self-affirmation,
Selective exposure is one way in which humans avoid forming dissonance in their belief
systems. It is when we keep ourselves from information or performing actions that might lead to
inconsistencies with our own beliefs (Griffin, et al., 2015). If we smoke cigarettes, we may
change the channel if a stop smoking commercial comes on, so that we don't have to hear the
effects of cigarettes that the advertisement is addressing, such as lung cancer. If we can keep the
thought of getting lung cancer out of our minds, it allows us to keep smoking without feeling
regret or any form of dissonance. Another way in which we reduce dissonance is through
without necessarily having a private conviction that aligns with the behavior performed (Griffin,
et al., 2015). Self-affirmation is also a way in which we can reduce dissonance, being when a
person uses positive thoughts about themselves in order to justify a behavior they produced yet
don't necessarily agree with. This is normally done by those with high enough self-esteem that
they can call upon the good qualities they have in order to convince themselves they are still a
good person, even though they may have performed an action that goes against what they
consider good. Most people, however, tend to gravitate towards general rationalization. An
example of this would be a smoker justifying smoking, even though it is bad for their health, by
telling themselves they haven't been smoking for very long and can quit any time.
Cognitive dissonance theory, because of its applicable nature, have been used to conduct
many studies to explain and predict behavior. One of the ways in which this theory has been
applied to society is through explaining parents' reactions to children being under the influence
of alcohol. A longitudinal cohortsequential study conducted by Glatz, Stattin, & Kerr, which was
approved by the University Ethics Review Board, used cognitive dissonance theory to form
several hypotheses regarding these parents' behaviors. The study conducted used a school-based
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND ITS USES 4
sample of 494 youths (13 and 14 years, 56% boys) and their parents. They used this study to test
two hypotheses originating from cognitive dissonance theory. The first suggesting that when
parents experience dissonance between their attitudes about appropriate behavior for a child and
their child's actual behavior should reduce dissonance by "changing their attitudes rather than
trying to change the behavior of their youths" (Glatz, Stattin, & Kerr, 2012). The second
hypothesis drawn from cognitive dissonance theory implied that upon reducing dissonance, the
parents should feel less discomfort regarding their child's behavior. This study used General
In regards to the study's first hypothesis, they found that there wasn't a significant differences of
change in parent's amount of control over their children between parents who had encountered
their child intoxication versus parents who hadn't. The attitude changes of the parents showed
that over time, parents "generally became less opposed" to their children drinking (Glatz, et al.,
2012). The study proved their second hypothesis true, finding that parents who had encountered
their children intoxicated, and chose to keep their opposition toward that kind of youth behavior,
showed more worry and stress toward their children's behavior overall (Glatz, et al., 2012).
Within this study Glatz, Stattin, and Kerr found that through using aspects of cognitive
dissonance theory, they were able to explain current and predict future behaviors of parents
toward intoxicated youths. This is just one way in which cognitive dissonance theory has been
used to discover new behavior regularities in society so that we may better understand ourselves
as human beings.
Another study conducted using cognitive dissonance theory explore the topic of
resistance to diversity among teachers. In a study conducted in 2001, McFalls and Cobb-Roberts
analyzed the dissonance formed by students in multicultural education courses, due to the
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND ITS USES 5
exposure "to information that is inconsistent with their prior beliefs and experiences." They
conducted a study using 124 undergraduates enrolled in two sections of a course on diversity
education. The first group consisted of 64 participants, 86% were women, 14% were men,17% of
these participants were African American, 12% Latino American, fewer than 2% were from
other backgrounds (Asian American, Native American) and the rest were Caucasian. The second
group consisted of 70% women, 30% men, most were of Caucasian decent, 17% were African
American, 10% were Latino American, and 6% were other. "One pedagogical implication of..."
cognitive dissonance theory "...is to embed dissonance-reduction strategies into the multicultural
education curriculum" in order to lower resistance to diversity in students (McFalls & Cobb-
Roberts, 2001). The study supplied group 2 subjects with a lecture on cognitive dissonance
theory before they reviewed the article on white privilege in order to test this hypothesis. Within
this study, McFalls and Cobb-Roberts found three major themes within the analysis of the
subjects' written responses: (1) awareness, (b) uncertainty, and (c) denial. The awareness was
that of students gaining knowledge of white privilege while taking reading an article about
diversity/white privilege, the uncertainty was that some participants we unsure of if they agreed
with information presented within the article provided, and denial was "used as a label for
responses that clearly articulated rejection of... White privilege" (McFalls & Cobb-Roberts,
2001). Within their examples, McFalls and Cobb-Roberts discovered that "students were
applying the concept of cognitive dissonance to explain their reaction to new ideas about White
privilege," (2001) and find that exposing students to cognitive dissonance theory in order to be
less resistant to diversity is an idea worth looking into. In this case, the theory is being used to
A study on voting and party preferences has also been conducted using cognitive
dissonance theory as a tool for analysis. Blstad, Dinas, & Riera, used cognitive dissonance
theory as an instrument for examining attitudinal indicators in a study conduction to see how
voters reach their decisions. "The main argument developed and examined in this study is that
casting a ballot actually matters...the act of voting has consequences for peoples attitudes toward
the party opted for..." and this idea stems from theories of many cognitive psychologists, "that
behavior can have attitudinal implications" (Blstad, et al., 2013). Cognitive dissonance theory
was used within this study to analyze the sets of preferences citizens form attitudinally while
making voting and party decisions because of its content on how people conform or modify their
attitudes to external ideas they cannot change. Festinger calls this, "compliance" (Griffin, et al.,
2015). Within this study they found their results were consistent with their predictions of
cognitive dissonance playing a role in producing the effect of voting on party preferences."
cognitive dissonance has the interesting implication that voters who are led to vote for parties
they do not prefer may still come to like them," meaning that in order to reduce dissonance of
feeling like their votes do not matter, voters may go along with public view even if they do not
Another way in which cognitive dissonance has been used in analysis is through neural
(brain) activity. In a study conduction by Carter, Veen, Krug, and Schooler, they found that
portions of cognitive dissonance theory could be proved through brain activity in a controlled set
of patients. Through a Solomon four-group design, participants were scanned "with functional
MRI while they argued that the uncomfortable scanner environment was nevertheless a pleasant
experience" (Carter, Veen, Krug, & Schooler, 2009). Within this study they could visualize
cognitive dissonance happening within the brains of the subjects, through the engagement of "the
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND ITS USES 7
dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insular..." finding that activation of these brain
Through this study of cognitive dissonance they were able to discover the neural basis to the
theory, making it more credible overall. This allows for growth of cognitive dissonance theory in
how it can be applied, due to its proven effect on the body and mind.
Cognitive dissonance theory is a theory that can be easily applied to many behavioral
situations. Many behaviors can be described through attitudinal changes as well as uncertainty
reduction, and cognitive dissonance theory lays out a clear path of how to analyze and potentially
predict these behaviors. Humans are very vast and complicated creatures, and in order to best
understand what we do, we must first know why we do it. This theory provides a pathway to
discovery and prediction of what, how, and why we, as humans, do the things we do. In the field
of communication this is very important because who we are and how we react impacts how we
receive and create messages (how we interact with each other). If we can get closer to predicting
behaviors and attitude changes of humans, we might just be able to create a society in which we
all can interact with each other in a kind and healthy manner.
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE AND ITS USES 8
References
Blstad, J., Dinas, E., & Riera, P. (2013). Tactical voting and party preferences: A test of
Carter, C. S., van Veen, V., Krug, M. K., & Schooler, J. W. (2009). Neural activity predicts
Gawronski, B. (2012). Back to the future of dissonance theory: Cognitive consistency as a core
Glatz, T., Stattin, H., & Kerr, M. (2012). A test of cognitive dissonance theory to explain parents'
McFalls, E. L., & Cobb-Roberts, D. (2001). Reducing resistance to diversity through cognitive
Education,52(2), 164-172.