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Festinger's Cognitive Dissonance Theory Explained

Why does the mind work so hard to talk itself into things? Festinger's classic theory explains the discomfort of holding contradictory beliefs.

What cognitive dissonance is

The psychological discomfort felt when holding two or more contradictory thoughts (cognitions) at the same time. Psychologist Leon Festinger proposed the concept in 1957, arguing that people are unconsciously motivated to reduce this discomfort by adjusting their thoughts, their behavior, or the meaning they assign to either one.

The classic experiment: one dollar vs. twenty dollars

In Festinger and Carlsmith's 1959 experiment, participants were paid either one dollar or twenty dollars to tell someone a boring task had been enjoyable, and researchers then compared how enjoyable participants actually claimed to have found it afterward.

Effort justification

The tendency to rate something more valuable than it objectively is, simply because it took considerable effort to obtain. In a 1959 experiment by Elliot Aronson and Judson Mills, participants who went through an unpleasant initiation to join a group rated that group as more attractive than participants who joined easily did -- an example of reducing dissonance by reasoning, in effect, "I went through so much for this, so it must be worth it."

Induced compliance

The phenomenon where, after freely choosing to behave in a way that conflicts with one's original opinion, the underlying attitude itself shifts to match the behavior. This effect tends to be stronger the more a person feels they chose the behavior themselves, without heavy outside pressure -- the one-dollar-versus-twenty-dollar experiment is the textbook example of induced compliance.

Post-decision dissonance

The discomfort that arises after choosing one option among several, when the appealing features of the option not chosen keep coming to mind.

Three ways people reduce dissonance

People are generally described as reducing dissonance in one of three ways: changing their behavior, changing their belief or attitude, or adding a new belief that justifies the original contradiction.

Where the theory comes from

Cognitive Dissonance Theory was published by American social psychologist Leon Festinger in 1957. Its core claim is that when a person's beliefs and attitudes conflict with their actual behavior, they feel psychological discomfort, and unconsciously try to resolve it by adjusting one side or the other -- one of the most widely tested and cited theories in all of social psychology.

Why the mind finds it easier to talk itself into things, and what that looks like day to day

According to the theory, changing a belief is usually easier than undoing a behavior that's already happened, since the action itself can't be taken back, but the meaning attached to it can be adjusted relatively easily -- which is why people so often bend their thinking to justify choices they've already made. Convincing yourself "one night off my diet won't matter" after eating a late-night snack, downplaying the flaws of an expensive purchase, or defending a favorite brand or public figure even more strongly after they make a visible mistake, are all commonly cited everyday examples of reducing dissonance this way.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is cognitive dissonance a bad thing?

Dissonance itself isn't good or bad -- it's a natural psychological response that happens to everyone. What's worth watching for is that resolving it can sometimes slide into distorting facts or reasoning in ways that aren't fully rational.

Wouldn't a bigger reward cause a bigger attitude change?

The classic experiment found the opposite. A larger reward gives someone a sufficient external justification for their behavior, so they feel less dissonance, while a smaller reward leaves that justification lacking, pushing them to reduce the dissonance by genuinely changing their attitude instead.