Cognitive Dissonance And Its Effect On Behavior

In 1986, Albert Bandura explored the concept of moral disengagement and its involvement in individuals accepting and encouraging the act of violence and other immoral activities while justifying their behavior. Moral disengagement, a term from social psychology, is the notion that focuses on the process in which an individual convince themselves that their morals or ethical standards do not apply to a certain situation. When this occurs, the individual has disabled the mechanism of self-condemnation and is separating themselves from their morals and acting in inhumane ways. Many people disengage themselves from their morals in certain situations because they feel their actions are justified, or they defuse the responsibility to others and believe that someone else will take charge. The purpose of this paper is to explore the social cognitive theory of moral disengagement and how well it does at explaining why humans detach themselves from their morality and justify their misconduct, contrary to the rationalist, psychological and socio-structural theories.

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

Isaac Petersen 5/23/13 Honors Psych Cognitive Dissonance Cognitive dissonance theory has been around since the late fifties. It has inspired many psychologists to figure out the murky depths of people’s minds. The theory relates strongly to decision making, social phenomenons and mental angst. Many paradigms exist within cognitive dissonance. Two important paradigms are the Belief Disconfirmation paradigm and the Free Choice paradigm. There are several experiments that have been studied that relate to cognitive dissonance, including the boring tasks experiment. The person who coined the phrase cognitive dissonance is the famous Leon Festinger, and he studied it inside and out. Cognitive dissonance is one of the most important topics

Cognitive Dissonance Cognitive Dissonance or mental stress which is primarily caused by contradictory beliefs, can be a common part of some peoples life’s however we are psychologically motivated to avoid situations which cause mental stress. This paper will discuss a situation and the behavior using attribution theory, the reciprocal relationship between behavior and attitudes as well as how cognitive dissonance theory could be used to rationalize the behavior.

Leon Festinger and James M. Carlsmith (1959) were interested in the cognitive dissonance, which can influence a person decision to choose one action or thought over another. The researchers were also interested in forced compliance, where authority can force individuals to say or act in a way that is conflicting to one’s own private opinion, whereas, the individual's attitude is altered through persuasion and authority. “Force” was operationally defined as the amount of reward offered for lying and cognitive dissonance experienced from the participant’s rated enjoyment of the tasks. Therefore, the researchers investigated if cognitive dissonance could be created through forced compliance behavior. Furthermore, Festinger and Carlsmith hypothesized

Cognitive dissonance is the internal state that arises when either an attitude and behavior or two attitudes conflict. The resulting psychological discomfort remains until subjects can reach consonance between the two. They reach consonance by changing an attitude, rationalizing a behavior, or undervaluing the importance of the discrepant attitude. Balcetis & Dunning (2007) investigated whether cognitive dissonance influenced subjects’ visual perception of natural environments. In two judgment tasks, the researchers manipulated the degree to which subjects felt that they had freely chosen to participate in an aversive task. Those in the first study donned a Carmen Miranda costume and walked the length of a school courtyard, while subjects in the second study used a skateboard to push themselves uphill. High-choice subjects experienced more dissonance than did their low-choice and control condition counterparts. In the

“If I chose to do it or say it, I must believe in it.” asserts the psychologist Leon Festinger (as cited in Psychology: Eighth Edition in Modules, 2007, p.731). When we become aware that our actions contradict our attitudes, we tend to revise our attitudes. This statement fits Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory that asserts that we act to reduce discomfort or dissonance, an unpleasant tension, we experience when two of our thoughts or cognitions are inconsistent. Mkimmie, et al. (2003) investigated the impact of social support on cognitive dissonance arousal in their experiment, “I’m a Hypocrite, but So Is Everyone Else: Group Support and the Reduction of Cognitive Dissonance.” The psychologists aimed to test the impact of social

Introduction This paper applies the principles of the cognitive dissonance theory (CDT) to the potential racial motivations of homegrown terrorists. Generally, the CDT rests on the premise that in a situation where one is faced with conflicting attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors, there is a need to restore harmony, with his or her pre-existing thoughts and ideas. In addition, this need for harmony can give rise to irrational and sometimes maladaptive behaviors in order to reinstate that balance (Mcleod, 2014). From the perspective of this analysis, it seems appropriate to apply the CDT to the potential racial motivations of Americans that self-radicalize as one can easily be influenced to change their perception of terrorism after consistently being the target of attacks against their race. Determining the motivation may help prevent future Americans from self-radicalizing and prevent future homegrown terrorist attacks. With the CDT used to research and analyze motivations of homegrown terrorist attacks.

“Cognitive dissonance plays a key role in people’s behavior when choosing between alternatives, because the selection of an alternative is based in the fact it is more desirable” (Alvarado, Ramirez, 2014). Humans are often faced with the challenge of choosing between two alternatives, and are

Suddenly, an insect is caught in a spider's web, unaware of the spider the insect has a special defiance weapon. The spider making a fatal mistake, miss judged the insect's character, and in return had nothing to show for its hard work. This is similar to what one does when they miss interoperating another's feelings and personality causing pain and no gain for the observer. New stereotypes, 'boxes', assumptions, etc. all have encroached on a person's worldview. One comes to see others in a whole new way by theories like the Attribution theory and its Fundamental Attribution error, along with Cognitive Dissonance theory all of which involve one's actions and attitudes.

Due to the social norms prevalent in the society people may negatively view some attributes such as alcohol addiction, drug abuse, drunken driving whereas positively view attributes like regular churchgoing, voting in elections. These societal norms may cause conformation since individuals will tend to present themselves in a favourable manner irrespective of their true feelings or actual behaviour. Individuals may under-report those activities which are socially or culturally undesirable and over-report those activities which are socially or culturally desirable. (Ganster, Hennessey and Luthans, 1983).

Leon Festinger and James M. Carlsmith (1959) were interested in the cognitive dissonance experienced when a person is forced to say or do something that is conflicting to one’s private opinion of the matter. Cognitive dissonance is most persuasive when it comes to feelings and thoughts about oneself and can motivate or influence us to choose one action or thought over another. The researchers were also interested in forced compliance theory, which is the idea that authority or some other perceived higher-ranking person can force a lower-ranked individual to make statements or perform acts that violate their better judgment. The focus is the goal of altering an individual's attitude through persuasion and authority. Thus, the study conducted

First, the magnitude of dissonance experience, second, the importance of the elements involved in order to restore consistency and third, the level of restructuring one’s cognitive system in an attempt at reducing the dissonance. These authors point out that little research has been conducted in relation to the three elements. Furthermore, going against the majority, the authors indicated sufficient research has been conducted on the basis of attitude and beliefs, and in doing so, suggested that change may occur in the individual after being subjected to dissonance arousing situations, for example deciding whether or not to cheat on a college

Cognitive Dissonance is refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. This produces a feeling of discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance etc. The research on cognitive dissonance was done by Festinger and Carlsmith in 1959. It gives a background history of the time when Cognitive Dissonance was investigated by Leon Festinger. However, In the case being discussed in this paper, participants are given a boring task to start with. After the experiment, participants are paid different amounts to pursue other participates who are waiting to start with task. The participants who are done with the task feel dissonance when they were asked to pursue someone that the task was fun. There can many other ways and situations were one can experience dissonance. Also in the discussion there is inclusion for how to reduce cognitive dissonance which could help one to make better decisions.

Cognitive Dissonance in Employment: In a practical sense, cognitive dissonance reactions generally originate from the peoples' perspective of themselves, especially as intelligent and nice people. Generally, the concept or theory of cognitive dissonance helps to understand how people attempt to make sense of the world they live in. However, the theory does not precisely forecast what a person will do minimize or get rid of disagreement. This theory mainly states that a person will be stimulated to do something in order to bring attitudes and behaviors into balance. As a result of its basic focus, cognitive dissonance has significant effects on various fields, especially in risk taking at a place of employment or specific industry.