Cognitive dissonance is a very familiar and widespread occurrence in humans’ day-to-day occurrences. Individuals’ beliefs, attitudes, and actions bear inconsistency from each other hence resulting in a feeling of disappointment, nervousness, restlessness, and strangeness. Cognitive dissonance is elucidated as the psychological distress that an individual experiences when prompted to do something that differs from their beliefs, attitudes, or morals. Additionally, cognitive dissonance also explains the discomfort someone experiences when faced with two contradicting thoughts or given novel information that is conflicting with what they believe. In essence, the theory of cognitive dissonance clarifies on the need to justify events that contradicts someone’s beliefs. Therefore, this paper offers the definition of the theory of cognitive dissonance as presented by different authors, elucidates the two major hypotheses of the theory, how it plays a role in media, that is, advertising, marketing, and news coverage, its applicability in workplace and social setting, and lastly, the criticisms the theory faces.
Definition of the theory of cognitive dissonance
Leon Festinger, a social psychologist, developed the theory of Cognitive Dissonance almost half a century ago. Historically, in social psychology, the theory has stood the test of time and emerged as one of the most significant theories. According to Festinger (1957), cognitive dissonance is a form of mental distress that individuals feel when they recognize that whatever they are doing or saying is in contradiction with what their morals and beliefs. Leon Festinger developed the theory as an attempt to elucidate on why individuals struggle to make sure that their actions are in line with their behaviors and attitudes, that is, the persistent human tendency to rationalize (Festinger, 1957; as cited in Griffin, 2009). With time the theory has evolved, and new definitions have emerged. For instance, Aronson, Wilson, and Akert (1997) state that cognitive dissonance is a tendency of individuals to experience discomfort when they are presented with information that contradicts their principles, beliefs, or morals. On the other hand, Montier (2011) defines cognitive dissonance as a theory that entails an individual’s motivation that emphasizes being psychologically uncomfortable to embrace contradictory cognitions. Despite the many different definitions, they all describe the mental conflict that an individual encounters when their assumptions, attitudes, and beliefs are contradicted by novel information.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Hypotheses of the theory of cognitive dissonance
There are two major hypotheses of the theory of cognitive dissonance. The first hypothesis states that when individuals experience psychological uneasiness caused by cognitive conflicts, they try to minimize the distress and attain internal serenity. Festinger (1957) states that an individual tends to achieve internal harmony in three ways. The first way is through reducing the significance of the discordant thought, that is, they reduce the significance of the discordant thought. Secondly, individuals tend to put more weight on a harmonious thought so that it outweighs the discordant conception. The last way is through integrating the discordant thought into what their present beliefs, morals, or attitudes.
The second hypothesis states that individuals who have encountered discordant thoughts attempts to evade them in the future by avoiding challenging situations and restraining information to that which asserts their present values. In part, the premise elucidates why events from several national news broadcast organizations are skewed alongside a political slant. That is, many of the news outlets always capitalize on the public desire to see reality in a manner that supports their cognitions. For example, Fox News and MSNBC are generally identified by their efforts to satisfy their conservative voters’ preferences, and its liberal bias respectively ("Cognitive Dissonance Theory," 2018). Normally, the viewers of the two news outlets tend to be very loyal. Such exposure has scientifically been termed as “selective exposure” since it tends to isolate different sets of individuals according to how they limit their sources of information ("Cognitive Dissonance Theory," 2018).
Theory of cognitive dissonance and media today
Today, other than being used to understand why individuals justify unhealthy habits, make risky financial decisions, and give in to con artists, the theory is applied in numerous areas of media such as advertising and marketing, and news coverage among others.
Application in advertising and marketing
In the media, advertising and marketing deal with people’s emotions and feelings. This entails figuring out the buyers’ psychology, their motives, attitudes, the reference groups that influence their choices such as family and friends, social status, and culture. For their advertisements to have an impact on the intended audience, advertisers and marketers employ several aspects of behavioral science, for example, cognitive dissonance, to enhance their persuasiveness. The main reason why cognitive science is employed in advertising is that it assists in channeling a favorable response concerning a product or concept from the intended audience.
For example, if a public relations agency is running an advertising campaign aimed at persuading ladies to purchase a particular brand of deodorant since it is toxin-free in comparison to other brands, this will present cognitive dissonance to the ladies. They will be faced with different conflicting scenarios; first, some ladies may be using or prefer a different type of deodorant, and second, some may not have known that some deodorants contain toxins. Therefore, some may prefer to change the brand they are currently using for safety reasons while others may do some thorough research on their preferred brand to ascertain if it indeed contains toxin to make them feel better about their preferred choice of deodorant. Hence, the public relations person utilizes advertising and marketing by disseminating enough persuasion information to convince the women to purchase their brand over their competitor’s. If the information is extensive and persuasive, then it becomes easy to influence the target audience’s preferences to alter their attitudes.
Application in News coverage
Normally, a news anchor may present information in which the audience sees inconsistency, that is, the story does not contain enough facts to validate. Therefore, the viewers experience dissonance about it. For example, in 2015, the US government’s campaign to vaccinate citizens against flu was intended to prevent flu which was arguably not circulating in the populace. This implies that the vaccine was of no use although CDC insisted on people taking it anyway.Consequently, when the anchor presented the news to the audience, they felt a tug or discomfort. On one side, the idiocy of the vaccine story, and on the other side, the trusted anchor accepted the story, a phenomenon well known as dissonance. Such news is presented with anticipation for cognitive dissonance, that is, the anchors and top operatives want it to occur since it throws viewers to a tailspin and in such a scenario of mental discomfort, the anchor makes the viewers doubt their own beliefs and resolve that they may be the ones in the wrong. That is how powerful cognitive dissonance is presented in the news; to present absurdities in the news and move on as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened, and leave the viewers to self-doubt themselves. The cycle occurs daily, monthly, and year after year till the whole news delivery is a form of brainwashing characterized with contradicting events, absurdities, dissonance, acceptance, surrender, and passivity.
Cognitive dissonance in workplaces
When professionals work in areas such as risk management and human resources, they experience cognitive dissonance. In these areas, they are coerced or directed towards executing and tolerating activities which don’t conform to their morals, beliefs, and attitudes even though they may have chosen such career paths because of their internal beliefs, personal values, and ethics. Therefore, when faced with such conflicting scenarios, the employees experience a state of permanent tension, distress, and deep personal dissatisfaction (Bashshur, Hernández, & González-Romá, 2011). Despite the employees’ dissatisfaction with the tasks allocated, they normally execute them due to the following major reasons; firstly, they execute the tasks as a result of internal justification or normalization. They disagree with the task, but it is part of the job description (Bashshur, Hernández, & González-Romá, 2011). Secondly, they execute the activities due to positional obedience, that is, they execute the tasks to avoid confrontation with their superiors and the negative emotional experience accompanying such confrontations since the instructions are passed down. Thirdly, they perform the tasks for emotional trading. This is a forecast that future reward for obedience is worth compromising their attitudes and beliefs.
If cognitive dissonance is left unaddressed in the workplace, it leads to employees’ withdrawal and disengagement. Additionally, there may be increased absenteeism whereby employees masks workplace stress by giving excuses to remain out of office as long as possible to avoid the stress that is brought about by cognitive dissonance. Moreover, inappropriate and negative emotions and behaviors such as anxiety, anger, and disappointment, as well as aggression, sabotage, and silent obstruction may manifest respectively. Overall, cognitive dissonance in workplaces is caused by applying a particular leadership style, discrimination, bullying, and many other malicious forms of management. Therefore, it is of importance to ensure that the organization’s management style conforms to the beliefs of the organization’s employees.
Cognitive dissonance in social settings
Since the theory of cognitive dissonance was developed in the context of social psychology, it thus holds so much weight when it comes to its effect in social settings. Several postulates support the role of cognitive dissonance in the society, for example, the self-standards model which states that dissonance comes about when individuals evaluate their behavior and discover that it does not conform to some standard of judgment (Stone & Cooper, 2001). For example in schools, if students with a firm opinion and belief about a given concept are presented with a different perspective of the concept which is in contradiction with their thoughts, they tend to experience psychological discomfort. They may resolve that the teacher may be wrong and they are right, and in some cases, they accept the teacher’s perspective and move on. Similarly, in courtrooms, cognitive dissonance is experienced. Particularly, an unfortunate example is a miscarriage of justice. Such a case is when authorities celebrate when an individual is sent to prison for a crime he is suspected to have committed. However, if evidence later proves the person’s innocence, the authority will stick to their narrative that they arrest and tried the right person. They reject the evidence and find other issues that serve to keep the individual in jail.
Criticism of cognitive dissonance theory
Firstly, critics argue that cognitive dissonance is not quantifiable. They state that the main reason why it is not possible to determine the exact measure of dissonance is that it is not observable. Secondly, some researchers argue that the theory is ambiguous since the same results obtained can be arrived using other cognitive processes such as self-perception and impression management. Particularly, the Festinger and Carlsmith's one dollar/twenty dollar study’s result has received other explanations. Thirdly, other critics argue that the result obtained by Festinger and Carlsmith's are based on controlled lab experiments and thus lacks validity in real –life scenarios. Also, they argue that the largest percentage of the participants in the study is made up of college students who do not reflect the representation of the whole population. Lastly, the theory fails to address the issue of individual differences in the arousal and tolerance for cognitive dissonance since some are prone to experience dissonance more than others, while some are tolerant for a longer period.
Conclusion
Overall, the theory of cognitive dissonance describes the conflicting situation that persons face whenever their assumptions, attitudes, and beliefs are contradicted by new information.
The theory encompasses two hypotheses, the first one stating that as persons experience psychological distress due to cognitive conflicts, they strive to lessen the uneasiness and attain internal harmony, or consonance. The second hypothesis asserts that persons who have faced dissonant thoughts usually try to avoid them in the future by evading situations that are challenging and limiting information to that which affirms their present values. Moreover, the theory plays a role in media today in product advertising and marketing ads and news coverage. As elucidated, its applicability in the workplace and social settings such as schools and courtrooms is also significant. Lastly, the theory faces several critics some of them being that the theory findings only represent a segment of the population, the finding is lab generated thus don’t represent the real-life scenario, and the theory is not quantifiable among others.
References
Aronson, E., Wilson, T. and Akert, R. (1997). Social psychology . New York: Longman.
Bashshur, M. R., Hernández, A., & González-Romá, V. (2011). When managers and their teams disagree: a longitudinal look at the consequences of differences in perceptions of organizational support. Journal of Applied Psychology , 96 (3), 558.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory. (2018). Retrieved from http://www.communicationstudies.com/communication-theories/cognitive-dissonance-theory
Festinger, L. (1957) A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press
Griffin, E. (2009). A first look at communication theory . New York: McGraw-Hill.
Montier, J. (2011). Behavioral Finance: Insights into Irrational Minds and Markets . Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Stone, J., & Cooper, J. (2001). A Self-Standards Model of Cognitive Dissonance. Journal Of Experimental Social Psychology , 37 (3), 228-243. doi: 10.1006/jesp.2000.1446
