Festinger 1962 - Cognitive Dissonance

Google Scholar Link

Festinger, L. (1962). Cognitive dissonance. Scientific American, 207(4), 93-106.

Most references seem to use Festinger’s 1957 book “A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance,” but this summary is a good overview.

Summary

Cognitive dissonance is caused by two items of information that do not fit together psychologically. For example, one might think of themselves as fit, yet they do not exercise. If they believe that fit people must exercise, the two ideas (being fit and not exercising) cause dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is an aversive state that results in a motivation to minimize the dissonance. If dissonance is caused by a belief and a seemingly incongruent behavior, to reduce dissonance one might either change the belief or change the behavior.

When making choices, there is an increase in the desirability of the chosen alternative (in his book Influence, a similar phenomenon was noted by Cialdini amongst bettors at a horse track). This is a result of dissonance reduction - we naturally reduce the desirability of the object that we did not choose, while simultaneously increasing the desirability of the object that we did choose. This can lead to some unexpected results. For example, students were asked to lie to another student and tell them that a boring lab experiment was actually fun. The students who were paid the least amount to do this saw the great change in their opinion of the lab experiment (as measured before and after the lie was told). The students who were paid the most had the smallest amount of change. This can be explained by realizing that the money itself served to reduce dissonance, while, in the smaller money conditions, the amount of money was not sufficient to do so. In that condition, the subject instead changed their own evaluation of the lab experiment to reduce the dissonance of the lie.

Application

Strong prohibition can actually cause increased temptation. Conversely, weak prohibition can decrease attractiveness. Incentives should be carefully thought through to avoid backfires.