When Prophecy Fails

In “A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance,” (1957) social psychologist Leon Festinger proposes that all humans share an inherent drive to keep behaviors and principles in harmony and avoid disharmony between opposing attitudes. When a person feels a clash of their views they attempt to counteract or explain away their discomfort. In more severe cases of misalignments of an individual’s beliefs they may behave irrationally or maladaptively due to the instinctive urge to rebalance themselves. Cognitive

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

dissonance can be described as the feeling of discomfort resulting from holding two conflicting beliefs. It can also be said to be the mental conflict that occurs when beliefs or assumptions are contradicted by new information. A well-known psychologist Leon Festinger (1919–89), introduced this concept in the late 1950s where he proved that, when confronted with challenging new information; most people are observed to preserve their current understanding of the world by rejecting or avoiding the new information

     The theory of Cognitive Dissonance states that when individuals are presented with information that implies we act in a way that contradicts our moral standards, we experience discomfort (Aronson, Wilson, and Akert, 1998, P. 191). This is considered Cognitive Dissonance, A psychological term used to describe mental conflict that occurs when beliefs or assumptions are contradicted by new information; arouses unease or tension; relieved by one of several defensive maneuvers:

This questions whether or not dissonance arises when people are highly rewarded for tasks that they did not want to do, and what the magnitude of dissonance is when given different levels of reward. This experiment had three groups. One was the control group that did not get payed (rewarded) for their task. The second group was paid one dollar to do the task

In the 1950s, Leon Festinger had come up with this theory of Cognitive Dissonance when a cult leader had persuaded his followers to believe that life on earth was going to end, and that those who were believers would be rescued by aliens. When this did not occur, they rationalized their beliefs by instead coming to the conclusion that aliens, rather, had saved the entire world. Cognitive Dissonance occurs when we hold a strong belief about something and then do something else that contradicts that

reasoning or remembering. Dissonance is a noun meaning, when there is a tug-of- war between one’s actions and one’s mind [ (Merriam-Webster, 2011) ].This paper will explore that tug-of-war of the mind (conscious) and actions (subconscious) and how one can and will justify behavior that a direct dissension from his or her values, beliefs, attitudes and

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

“dissonance” refers to the relation between two elements. When two elements do not fit together they are considered dissonant. Cognitive dissonance can be broken down into a number of elements. As Brehm and Cohen (1962) write, “A dissonant relationship exist between two cognitive elements when a person possesses one which follows the obverse of another that he possesses. A person experiences dissonance, that is, a motivational tension, when he (or she) has cognitions among which there are one or more

Festinger studied. The people in this community had strong beliefs that the world would end by a great flood. These people literally left their possession’s, jobs, and just in general their life all because of this prophecy. When the leader and her followers realized that the prophecy failed, they didn’t accept their mistake instead they justified. The followers believed the reason they were apparently spared was because of their strong faith and prayers. The followers were so gullible to believe