Assignment on Cognitive Dissonance
Theory Paper on Cognitive Dissonance Theory
“Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn 't fit in with the core belief.”
― Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (1)
The quote cited above very well explains one of the most important and yet so practical theory in Communication studies. Leon Festinger gave this theory which revolves around the idea that people do things that don’t fit with what they know or having opinions that don’t fit with other opinions they hold.
Causes of Dissonance:
i) After making and important and difficult decision
ii) Being forced to say or do something contrary to beliefs, attitudes &opinions.
iii) Exposure to discrepant information.
The degree of dissonance is largely dependent on the significance of the decision, the foregone alternatives and their associated importance, which were foregone during decision making.
The example being quoted here talks about how cognitive dissonance theory affects the consumer behavior in people. The experiment reported by “Ehrlich et al” supported the theory (2); findings suggest that larger the amount of automobiles a purchaser considered before making the purchase, greater would be the frequency of reading advertisement of the same company whose product the consumer bought. An exception to this theory is that people selectively considered the advertisements of rejected and ignored makers as well. The automobile makers they dint consider at all were also chucked out while reading adverts. On the other hand, for those who were considered and rejected, were still consumed in the form of advertisements. The above example talks about post
“Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn 't fit in with the core belief.”
― Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (1)
The quote cited above very well explains one of the most important and yet so practical theory in Communication studies. Leon Festinger gave this theory which revolves around the idea that people do things that don’t fit with what they know or having opinions that don’t fit with other opinions they hold.
Causes of Dissonance:
i) After making and important and difficult decision
ii) Being forced to say or do something contrary to beliefs, attitudes &opinions.
iii) Exposure to discrepant information.
The degree of dissonance is largely dependent on the significance of the decision, the foregone alternatives and their associated importance, which were foregone during decision making.
The example being quoted here talks about how cognitive dissonance theory affects the consumer behavior in people. The experiment reported by “Ehrlich et al” supported the theory (2); findings suggest that larger the amount of automobiles a purchaser considered before making the purchase, greater would be the frequency of reading advertisement of the same company whose product the consumer bought. An exception to this theory is that people selectively considered the advertisements of rejected and ignored makers as well. The automobile makers they dint consider at all were also chucked out while reading adverts. On the other hand, for those who were considered and rejected, were still consumed in the form of advertisements. The above example talks about post