Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Cognitive dissonance theory aims to explain the relationships between the
motivation, perceptions and cognitions of an individual.
By Ying Tueanrat (Business School, Newcastle University, UK) & Eleftherios
Alamanos (Business School, Newcastle University, UK)
How to cite: Tueanrat, Y. & Alamanos, E. (2023) Cognitive Dissonance Theory: A review. In S.
Papagiannidis (Ed), TheoryHub Book. Available at https://open.ncl.ac.uk / ISBN:
9781739604400
Theory Factsheet
Proposed By: Festinger, 1962
Related Theories: Social Exchange Theory, Force Compliance Theory, Fairness Theories, Self-perception
Theory, Balance Theory, Cost-benefit Analysis, Self-discrepancy Theory, Confirmation Bias, Coping Behaviour
Theories, Sensemaking, Echo Chambers, Resistance to Change
Discipline: Psychology
Unit of Analysis: Individual
Level: Micro-level
Type: Theory for Explaining
Operationalised: Qualitatively / Quantitatively
Introduction
Cognitive dissonance theory was first presented by Leon Festinger in 1957 in order to explain the
relationships between the motivation, perceptions and cognitions of an individual (Festinger, 1962).
It clarified the conditions that motivate individuals to change their opinions, attitudes, beliefs or
behaviours. Festinger (Festinger, 1962) defined the ‘cognition’ as any piece of knowledge that an
individual has about themself or their environment. The theory was based on the belief that people
strive toward consistency within themselves and are driven to make changes to reduce or eliminate
an inconsistency (Cooper, 2007). Cognitive dissonance theory began by postulating that pairs of
cognitions can be either relevant or irrelevant to one another. If two cognitions are relevant and
concurring, there is consonance. However, if two cognitions are relevant, but conflicting, the
existence of dissonance would cause psychological discomfort and motivate the individual to act
upon this. The greater the magnitude of dissonance, the greater the pressure for the individual to
reduce the dissonance (Harmon-Jones & Mills, 2019). The existence of dissonance and the
mechanisms that humans used to cope with it captured Festinger’s interest in developing cognitive
dissonance theory.
The concept of cognition was relatively new at the time of the introduction of cognitive dissonance
theory. Before that, the relationship between human attitudes and behaviours was understood as a
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complex process that involved motivational, emotional, affective and perceptual factors (Krech,
2019; Rosenberg, 1966). Therefore, the theory was one of the breakthroughs for research in the
psychology field as it revolutionised thinking about human psychological processes. More
specifically, the theory explains how rewards affect attitudes and behaviours and how behaviours
and motivations affect cognitions and perceptions (Harmon-Jones & Harmon-Jones, 2007). Although
the concepts of harmony and conflict were not new and had been proposed earlier by Heider
(Heider, 1946), Cognitive Dissonance theory made a major contribution to the concept of
consistency (Cooper, 2007). The theory is different compared to other consistency theories as it
defines dissonance and consonance in relation to a specific cognition, which usually is related to a
behaviour (Harmon-Jones & Harmon-Jones, 2007). Cognitive Dissonance theory made it possible to
identify the determinants of attitudes and beliefs, the internalisation of values, the consequences of
decisions, the effects of disagreement among individuals and other important psychological
processes (Mills & Harmon-Jones, 1999). Hence, the theory received good attention from scholars in
its early days, due to its few fundamental and uncomplicated principles, which could make novel and
non-obvious predictions.
Theory
Cognitive Dissonance theory has two basic underlying hypotheses:
The existence of a dissonance will cause mental discomfort and motivate the individual to
reduce the dissonance and restore consonance To reduce the dissonance, the individual will
try to reduce it as well as avoid situations or information that are likely to increase the
dissonance
In simple terms, a dissonance is an inconsistency in cognitive elements, which can be knowledge,
opinions, beliefs, or the behaviours of an individual. The existence of such inconsistency causes
mental discomfort and motivates the individual to take some actions to reduce or eliminate it. We
have millions of cognitions, many of which are in our awareness but most are not (Marx, 1976).
Festinger (Festinger, 1962) theorised that a pair of cognitive elements may relate to each other in
three ways. Firstly, two cognitive elements may be relevant and consonant. Secondly, two cognitive
elements may be relevant but dissonant. However, identification of the relationship may also be
difficult, as two elements may be dissonant in one context, but not in another (Festinger, 1962).
Dissonance can arise from many sources, including, but not limited to, logical inconsistency, cultural
differences, contradictions between specific opinions and their related general stand, and a
disconfirmation of a past experience to a current situation (Westmeyer, 2012). Lastly, two elements
can be irrelevant to each other. The is a case when a pair of cognitive elements does not imply
anything concerning one another. Once again, it can be challenging to deduce such a relationship
because two elements may be indirectly linked. Therefore, researchers have to consider or make a
reference to other cognitions before deriving a conclusion (Festinger, 1962).
One of the features that distinguished cognitive dissonance theory from other consistency theories
was the concept of dissonance magnitude. The magnitude of dissonance depends on the number
and importance of cognitions that the person experiences a consonance or dissonance with. Its
calculation is summarised in the mathematical expression below (Festinger, 1962). The total tension
of a dissonance is the proportion of the inconsistent cognitions to the consistent cognitions that one
has, each weighted by its importance.
The formula conveys that the greater the amount or importance of dissonant cognitions and the
smaller the number or importance of consonant elements the greater the magnitude of dissonance
one experiences. The tension of a dissonance can fluctuate over time and does not follow a uniform
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pattern (Koller & Salzberger, 2012). However, the theory proposed that higher levels of dissonance
can forcefully motivate a person to promptly address the psychological discomforts, while small
levels of dissonance may not be as effective in encouraging the person to take an immediate action.
The minimal tensions rather build up gradually over time before they are addressed (Festinger,
1962).
In general, there are four ways to reduce a dissonance. Referring to the dissonance magnitude
formula above, the dissonance magnitude decreases if (i) the number of the dissonant cognitions
decreases, (ii) the importance of the dissonant cognition decreases, (iii) the number of the
consonant cognitions increases and (iv) the importance of the consonant cognition increases. In
other words, an individual can reduce the mental discomfort by changing the inconsistent
cognitions, reducing the importance of conflicting elements, acquiring new harmonious elements or
increasing the importance of the existing consistent elements. Festinger used the case of a habitual
smoker to demonstrate the theory (Festinger, 1962). A smoker who knows that smoking is bad for
health will experience dissonance, which causes mental discomfort, because the habit of smoking
and the knowledge of how harmful smoking is are conflicting. Hence, there are four ways that the
smoker can reduce the dissonance. First, the person could remove the dissonant cognition by either
changing his behaviour (stop smoking) or knowledge (believe that smoking is actually not bad for
health). Second, the person could reduce the importance of the dissonant cognition by thinking that
the risk of getting lung cancer from smoking is lesser than being in a car accident. Third, the person
could increase the amount of consonant cognition by looking for positive effects of smoking. Lastly,
the person could focus on the benefits of smoking as an important part of his or her life (Mills &
Harmon-Jones, 1999).
As studies on dissonance reduction have grown, specific reduction strategies have been explored. A
review has summarised and classified those strategies into seven categories (McGrath, 2017).
Attitude change: The changing of one’s attitude is the strategy that has received the most empirical
attention. Attitudes are recognised as more fluid and flexible when compared to other elements,
and thus easier to change (Cooper, 2007). Researchers often use attitudinal change as an indicator
of dissonance by measuring and comparing the affective state of participants before and after a
particular event (e.g. (Auster, 1965; Vroom & Deci, 1971; Davis & Jones, 1960)). However, several
researchers have pointed out that the overreliance on attitudinal change as a mere dissonance
reduction strategy has limited our understanding about how individuals deal with dissonant
experience (Devine et al., 1999;Leippe & Eisenstadt, 1999;Simon, Greenberg & Brehm, 1995;Wilder,
1992). Festinger (Mills & Harmon-Jones, 1999) has also stated that “in the ordinary world and if the
experimenter is not very careful, a little bit sloppy, there are lots and lots of avenues of dissonance
reduction, and those have never been explored” (p. 384), as further discussed below.
Distraction and forgetting: A diversion of attention away from the dissonance and its negative
effects helps individuals to reduce psychological discomfort. Zanna and Aziza (Zanna & Aziza, 1976)
were the first to propose distraction as a dissonance reduction method. The results suggested that
distraction is a more efficient strategy than attitudinal change because the latter could still remind
the individuals about the dissonance. In line with this, Elkin and Leippe (Elkin & Leippe, 1986)
explored forgetting as a dissonance reduction strategy and found that dissonance only declined
when participants forgot about the dissonance but not when they changed their attitudes.
Trivialisation and self-affirmation: Although Festinger (Festinger, 1962) described trivialisation as a
way to reduce psychological discomfort when introducing Cognitive Dissonance theory, the
approach was not empirically examined until almost 40 years later. Simon et al. (Simon, Greenberg &
Brehm, 1995) investigated the conditions that individuals would choose to minimise the importance
of dissonant cognitions over attitudinal change to counteract the arising psychological discomfort.
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The study found that the participants preferred trivialisation when the pre-existing attitudes or an
important issue were made salient. In addition, Simon et al. (Simon, Greenberg & Brehm, 1995) also
proposed trivialisation as a process involving self-affirmation. Once someone reaffirms themselves
about their important value, the person weakens the importance of a discrepant act and reasserts
the sense of self-integrity (Steele & Liu, 1983).
Denial of responsibility: A sense of responsibility for one’s cognitions triggers the experience of
dissonance (McGrath, 2017). Gosling, Denizeau and Oberlé (Gosling, Denizeau & Oberlé, 2006)
empirically investigated this mode of dissonance reduction and confirmed its effectiveness. The
results of the study suggested that denial of responsibility could even be more efficient than
trivialisation in dealing with dissonance, especially when it is associated with feelings of shame and
guilt.
Adding consonant cognitions: Inconsistent behaviours may be rationalised by adding new
consonant cognitions to one’s belief system. A considerable number of empirical studies have
demonstrated how people seek out new information and external justification to support their
position. For example, participants searched for more supporting arguments after experiencing
discomfort from writing a counter-attitudinal essay (Cotton & Hieser, 1980) or participating in a
boring experiment (Brock & Balloun, 1967; Frey & Wicklund, 1978). Furthermore, overconfidence in
one’s position may also help add a consonant cognition and reduce dissonance (Knox & Inkster,
1968; Blanton et al., 2001).
Changing behaviour: Although Festinger (p. 384) (Mills & Harmon-Jones, 1999) suggested that “one
of the major avenues of dissonance reduction is to change your behaviour”, the approach often may
not be the most convenient way. To be specific, behaviours can be difficult to change when they
involve pain and loss, addiction or are simply irreversible (Festinger, 1962). However, many studies
have successfully demonstrated a mechanism for positive behaviour change as a result of a
dissonance arousal (DICKERSON et al., 1992;Focella et al., 2016;Fried & Aronson, 1995;Fointiat,
2004). Yet, limited research has investigated the behavioural change together with other dissonance
reduction strategies (McGrath, 2017). Therefore, it is unclear whether people will actually change
their behaviour when other reduction modes are also available.
Act rationalisation: Act rationalisation has been discussed in previous research as an alternative
behaviour reduction mode (Beauvois & Joule, 1996) (Joule & Beauvois, 1997). The approach
concerns using a new problematic behaviour that is consistent with a previous action to reduce
dissonance. For example, smokers who agreed to abstain from smoking for a short period tended to
agree to a second and longer abstinence period (Beauvois, Joule & Brunetti, 1993). The participation
in the longer abstinence period made the first abstinence period seem less problematic, and this
reduced dissonance.
Only scant research has investigated multiple dissonance reduction strategies simultaneously
(McGrath, 2017). However, in general, the likelihood that a particular cognition will change is
determined by its resistance to change, which is based on its responsiveness to reality and the
extent to which it is consonant with other cognitions (Harmon-Jones & Mills, 2019). Therefore,
changes are more likely to happen in an element that is less resistant or less important (Cooper,
2007). However, an attempt to reduce a dissonance is not always successful. An individual may fail
to restore a consonance, if there is a lack of social support and new harmonious elements, or the
existing problematic element is too satisfying (Harmon-Jones & Harmon-Jones, 2007).
When cognitive dissonance theory was first presented, three experimental paradigms (namely
decision justification, effort justification and induced compliance behaviour) were used to
empirically test and provide evidence to support the theory.
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Decision justification: Brehm (Brehm, 1956) applied the theory to examine dissonance in decision
making. According to the theory, when an individual evaluates a decision, all of the cognitions that
support the decision promote consonance, while cognitions that conflict with the selected choice
trigger dissonance. The greater the amount and importance of the conflicting cognitions and the
lesser the amount and importance of the supportive cognitions the higher degree of dissonance an
individual would experience, and vice versa. Dissonance that is aroused when evaluating a decision
can be reduced by viewing the selected choice as more attractive or the rejected alternatives as less
attractive. Brehm also suggested that the degree of dissonance is more severe with a difficult
decision when choices are close in attractiveness. An individual is more likely to change his or her
attitude to be more negative towards the rejected alternatives after a difficult decision, while being
unlikely to change the attitude if the attractiveness of the options is not comparable.
Effort justification: Dissonance arises when an individual invests a great amount of effort into a task,
but gets an undesirable outcome. The more undesirable the outcome, the higher the degree of
dissonance. The classic experimental design in effort justification was undertaken by Aronson and
Mills (Aronson & Mills, 1959). In this study, the researchers divided the participants into groups and
set them to undergo different levels of embarrassment to examine how they would deal with the
experiment. The results showed that the participants who experienced mild embarrassment
perceived the activity to be dull and boring, while the others who underwent a severely
embarrassing moment thought the activity was interesting. The experiment demonstrated that an
individual could reduce the psychological discomfort by convincing him or herself that the task is
interesting and the outcome is worthwhile to eliminate dissonance and achieve consonance.
Induced compliance behaviour: Festinger and CarlsmithFestinger & Carlsmith, 1959) used cognitive
dissonance theory to study induced compliance behaviours. They set up an experimental study and
asked participants to undertake a boring task for an hour. Then, the participants were rewarded
either $1 or $20. The group that was compensated with a higher amount of money did not
experience much dissonance, while the other group had to change their attitude and convinced
themselves that the task was interesting to counter the aroused dissonance. In cognitive dissonance
theory, monetary compensation can be viewed as a supportive cognition that promotes consonance.
Therefore, an individual would experience minimal to no dissonance when the amount or
importance of the supportive cognitions is great enough. On the other hand, if the supportive
cognitions are not large or strong enough to counter the dissonance, the individual would be
motivated to change attitude to be more positive as a justification for the counter-attitudinal
behaviour.
Although many studies have focused on a single dissonance reduction strategy (Festinger &
Carlsmith, 1959;Aronson & Mills, 1959;Brehm, 1956), it is important to note that people may
simultaneously adopt multiple strategies to counter the dissonance. This practice is commonly
studied in relation to coping strategies. 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.
In summary, Cognitive Dissonance theory has contributed to the concept of consistency in several
ways. Firstly, Festinger integrated various concepts, including attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, value
and behaviours, which had been considered separately as a single construct of cognition. This
treatment made it possible for scholars to understand the psychological process as a whole.
Secondly, Festinger viewed people’s mental states in a social environment from an intellectual
tradition, which was influenced by Kurt Lewin, rather than a Gestalt tradition as Heider did (Cooper,
2007). This intellectual tradition proposed that people navigated the world by motivational pushes
and pulls, and therefore our behaviours were driven by psychological forces. Based on this
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intellectual tradition, Festinger was able to predict the magnitude of dissonance in different
situations.
Applications
Cognitive dissonance theory has been successfully applied in many fields. It has been used to explain
and predict the motivational nature of dissonance that led to attitude and behaviour changes at
both the individual and organisational level.
The literature that is based on cognitive dissonance theory has broadly covered four phases of the
process, namely, cognitive discrepancy, dissonance, motivation and discrepancy reduction (Hinojosa
et al., 2017). The cognitive discrepancy phase considered a conflict between two or more cognitive
elements. The dissonance phase concerned the existence of a dissonance. The motivation phase
focused on the motivational nature of dissonance to reduce the psychological discomfort. Lastly, the
discrepancy reduction phase related to dissonance reduction mechanisms. The concept of
dissonance is predominantly related to the post-decision or post-purchase situation (Oliver, 2009).
The research on this phase commonly focused on the impacts of post-purchase touchpoints on
product or service evaluation (Cohen & Goldberg, 1970), satisfaction (Engel, 1963) intention to
repurchase (Hunt, 1970) and the back-out rate (Donnelly & Ivancevich, 1970) of customers. Negative
emotion was another concept that has been closely invested with cognitive dissonance. Previous
studies have examined the impact of anger, pain, guilt and regret on the strength of dissonance and
customer coping mechanisms (Higgins, 1997; Marikyan, Papagiannidis & Alamanos, 2020; Harmon-
Jones, 2004; Harmon-Jones, Harmon-Jones & Summerell, 2017; Gilovich, Medvec & Chen, 1995).
Some studies also investigated moderators, such as income and product involvement (Gbadamosi,
2009), on consumer decision making. Dissonance can also be extended to other purchase phases,
but its purposes will be different (Koller & Salzberger, 2009; Koller & Salzberger, 2012).
Organisational studies researchers have also applied cognitive dissonance theory to examine many
issues, such as, emotional labour in the workplace (Bhave & Glomb, 2016), team dissonance
(Stoverink et al., 2014), information search for decision making (Jonas & Frey, 2003) and employee
job change (Boswell, Boudreau & Tichy, 2005). A review of cognitive dissonance theory at the
organisation level was also conducted to integrate the relevant knowledge that was published from
2000 to 2016 (Hinojosa et al., 2017). The review revealed that most of the related studies focused on
a specific stage rather than the whole process of cognitive dissonance, with the least coverage on
the motivation phase. The two most studied phases of cognitive dissonance in the organisational
context were the cognitive discrepancy and the discrepancy reduction phase. The cognitive
discrepancy phase focused mainly on decision justification, effort justification and induced
compliance behaviours as sources of dissonance in various situations, whilst the discrepancy
reduction phase investigated methods that organisations used to reduce dissonance, including
changes in attitudes, behaviours, values, information selection, as well as no dissonance reduction
(Hinojosa et al., 2017).
Limitations
Cognitive dissonance theory has become popular among social psychology and social science
researchers since its early days, due to its few tenets that are able to explain the complex process of
dissonance. However, the parsimonious nature of its formulation and application made the theory
subject to the paradox of simplicity and raised concerns about overlooking confounding variables
(Festinger, 1957; Osgood, 1960; Zajonc, 1960). Since dissonance is not restricted to logical
inconsistencies, but is also bounded by other psychological and cultural factors (Festinger, 1962),
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several scholars argued that dissonance was more complicated than as presented by the Cognitive
Dissonance theory and not easy to create in an experiment, which also raised concerned over the
experimental paradigms that have been used to demonstrate the theory (Chapanis & Chapanis,
1964; Marx, 1976). In response to the limitations of the theory, three revisions of cognitive
dissonance theory have been proposed. Firstly, the self-consistency model (Abelson, Aronson &
McGuire, 1968; Aronson, 1999) addressed the paradox of the simplicity of the original theory by
adding self-concept as a further explanation of dissonance. Secondly, the self-affirmation model
(Berkowitz, 1988) focused on the overall self-image of moral and adaptive adequacy as an
alternative explanation for attitude change. Lastly, the aversive consequences model (also
commonly known as ”a new look at dissonance”) (Cooper & Fazio, 1984) also presented an
alternative view on mental discomfort. This model proposed that the psychological stress was
caused by the feeling of being self-responsible for inducing aversive consequences, rather than the
inconsistency in cognitive elements.
Concepts
Cognition (Independent): An opinion, knowledge or belief about the environment, about
oneself, or about one's behaviour. (Festinger, 1962)
Cognitive Dissonance (Dependent): The existence of non-fitting relations among cognitions.
(Festinger, 1962)
Cognitive Dissonance Reduction (Dependent): The existence of dissonance causes
psychological discomfort and motivates the individual to act upon this by changing their
opinions, attitudes, beliefs or behaviours. (Festinger, 1962)
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How to cite: Tueanrat, Y. & Alamanos, E. (2023) Cognitive Dissonance Theory: A review. In S.
Papagiannidis (Ed), TheoryHub Book. Available at https://open.ncl.ac.uk / ISBN:
9781739604400
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