Cognitive dissonance is a psychological theory designed by social psychologist Leon Festinger in 1957. It deals with the uncomfortable feeling people experience when they hold contradictory beliefs or engage in behaviors that conflict with their attitudes. This paper evaluates Festinger's classic book on cognitive dissonance by examining its key concepts, experimental procedures, results and findings, and lastly, implications. His book, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, discusses the cognitive processes that relieve dissonance and how people strive to restore consistency to improve their experiences.

The well-known experiment associated with cognitive dissonance involved a fixed laboratory setting where participants were asked to perform a tedious task, such as turning pegs on a pegboard for an hour. They were later paid either $1 or $20 to tell another participant that the task was interesting. The main aim of the study was to investigate the effects of insufficient justification on cognitive dissonance. The results showed that participants who were paid $1 (insufficient justification) reported higher enjoyment of the task than those paid $20. The low reward ($1) offered insufficient justification for lying, creating cognitive dissonance between their behavior (lying) and their beliefs (the task was boring). To resolve this dissonance, participants changed their attitudes, convincing themselves that the task was enjoyable.

Festinger postulated that dissonance is something that a person would always attempt to minimize or eliminate. For example, in the case above, the change in attitude towards the peg-turning experiment justified the effort. Beliefs and behavior can be made consistent by changing one's attitude. Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory is among the most influential theories in understanding human behavior and the process of decision-making. This theory is based on the idea that people are motivated to maintain cognitive consistency and will take measures to minimize their dissonance.

This theory of cognitive dissonance has been applied in several areas of psychology, including persuasion, attitude change, decision-making, and self-justification. The theory explains phenomena such as post-decisional regret, justification of choices, and adjustments of attitudes to fit one's behavior. By acknowledging the power of cognitive dissonance, psychologists and researchers have developed strategies to influence attitudes, promote behavior change, and understand the psychological mechanisms underlying human decision-making.

Much of the fundamental work by Leon Festinger on cognitive dissonance can be seen in his attempts to understand its influence on our cognition, attitudes, and behavior. According to his landmark study, people feel discomfort from dissonance and will work hard to reduce or eliminate this discomfort by adjusting their attitudes. The theory has far-reaching implications across numerous domains in psychology and continues to guide research and practical applications to this day.

Source:

Festinger, L. (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford University Press.