Cognitive Dissonance
As conceived by Festinger and
Carlsmith in:
Cognitive Consequences of Forced
Compliance (1959)
Stimulus/Response
or
the realm of ‘Obvious Prediction’
• Stimulus creates Response
• Cognition Unnecessary
• Social Physics?
• Deterministic vs. Probabilistic?
Cognitive Dissonance
or
the realm of ‘Nonobvious Prediction’
• Counterintuitive
• Refuting Behavioralism
• Cognition as intervening factor within
Stimulus/Response chain
Unusual Empirical Observations
(What to do?!?)
• What had been observed….
• What were the dominant explanations?
– Janis and King (1954; 1956)
– Kelman (1953)
Festinger’s Hypothesis
•
•
•
•
Opinion ‘X’ and public statement ‘not X’
Dissonance (D)
Consonance (C)
Question: How might D and C relate to
one another? Consider D1 to be total
dissonance. Formulate a mathematical
equation that describes how D and C
interrelate to express D1.
• D1 = D / (D+C)
• Hence: Total Magnitude of Dissonance
(D1) increases the higher the proportion of
dissonant factors over consonant factors
becomes, with 1.0 being the impossible
target of pure dissonance (100%).
• Ex: D= 8 and C= 2 (or) 4
Question…
• What might happen if there were to be a
situation in which a person were rewarded
AND punished for the same behaviors at
different times? (i.e.– C functionally
becomes interchangeable with D inside
the cognitive realm) What would the result
likely be?
Festinger’s Conclusion
• ‘The magnitude of dissonance is maximal
if… promised rewards or threatened
punishments… [are] just barely sufficient
to induce the person to say ‘not X.’ (56)
• Thus: Insufficient Justification
Insufficient Justification
• ‘Insufficient justification’ (minimal
consonance) creates maximal dissonance
(an imbalance) that must be resolved by a
negative drive state in cognition (i.e.–
cognitive dissonance) which changes
feelings to conform with behavior.
The Experiment
• Boring tasks, the missing assistant, the
pretty girl, the money, and the lie.
• The important questions:
– Interesting/Enjoyable? (indicator of
dissonance in action)
– Scientific Value?
• Question: Why? What’s the importance of this
question?
So… what about those alternative
explanations?
• Janis and King (1954; 1956)
• Kelman (1953)
• How do we know Festinger was right, and
these folks were wrong?
Furthering the Discussion
• Harmon-Jones (2004)
– ‘Contributions from Research on Anger and
Cognitive Dissonance to Understanding the
Motivational Functions of Asymmetrical
Frontal Brain Activity.’ Biological Psychology
v67, p. 51-76.
Frontal Lobe Asymmetry
• Left Frontal Lobe dominance vs. Right
Frontal Lobe dominance
– Physical/Psychological Health Issues
• Depression, Behavioral Activation/Inhibition
Sensitivity, Resting Baseline Frontal Asymmetry,
Facial Expressions
• Emotion and Motivation
– Valence Model (positive & negative)
– Motivation Model (approach & withdrawal)
– Valenced Motivation Model
Question…
• Is something positive in
valence always associated
with approach motivations,
and is something negative in
valence always associated
with withdrawal motivations?
• What about greed? Can you
think of any other examples?
Possible Answers….
• Anger, mania, compulsive lust.
• COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
Why Cognitive Dissonance?
• Negative Drive State AND Negative Affect
• Dissonance is a signal that something is wrong
and that it must be corrected through an
approach motivational response.
– the anterior cingulate cortex
– The left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
• Dissonance  activation of the anterior
cingulate cortex  activation of the left
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex  frontal lobe
brain asymmetry
Therefore….
• Because cognitive dissonance (a negative
affect state with an approach motivational
aspect) is associated with increased left
frontal lobe activity, the valence and
valenced motivational models are
untenable. Previous research has
confounded valence with motivation. Only
the motivational model of frontal lobe
asymmetry holds water.
Final Question:
• Since: Cognitive Dissonance = Approach
Motivational Cognitive Activity
• Given: The example of Public
Accountability and the question of
Approachability
• Might this be a new variable of study
regarding cognitive dissonance?
The End.