Social Cognition (ADW) Impressions. Prejudice & Stereotypes. Components of Attitudes. 4.6 Central and Peripheral Route. Introduction to the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Cognitive Dissonance Theory. Cognitive dissonance 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. For example, when people smoke (behavior) and they know that smoking causes cancer (cognition). Festinger's (1957) cognitive dissonance theory suggests that we have an inner drive to hold all our attitudes and beliefs in harmony and avoid disharmony (or dissonance). Attitudes may change because of factors within the person. An important factor here is the principle of cognitive consistency, the focus of Festinger's (1957) theory of cognitive dissonance. Leon Festinger (1957) proposed cognitive dissonance theory, which states that a powerful motive to maintain cognitive consistency can give rise to irrational and sometimes maladaptive behavior.
How Attitude Change Takes Place Dissonance can be reduced in one of three ways: Aim Method Results. Cognitive Dissonance. Fundamental Attribution Error. Advertisements showing Casual Attributions.