question_answer

Explain the concept of cognitive dissonance.                                                                       (Delhi Board 2014)

Answer:

Ans.     The concept of cognitive dissonance was introduced by Leon Festinger and Carlsmith.

This theory is based on cognitive inconsistency.

Cognitive dissonance: An unpleasant feeling which arise when two or more of our cognitions are inconsistent. The main causes of cognitive dissonance are as follows:

(a) When two attitudes are inconsistent in some way such as—’like this person’ and ‘I don’t like this person’s political views’.

(b) When people say or do things they do not mean, or behave in ways that are inconsistent with their underlying attitudes, e.g., arguing the merits of vegetarianism then ordering a non-vegetarian burger at the local burger bar create inconsistency.

As an explanation of attitude change, cognitive dissonance theory argues that doing things that are inconsistent with our attitudes may cause us to change those attitudes to overcome the negative feelings of dissonance.

According to cognitive dissonance theory attitudinal changes occur in two stages, i.e.

Stage-I and stage-II. e.g.

e.g., Cognition I: Smoking is injurious for health because it causes cancer.

Cognition II: I smoke tobacco.

To attain consonance one of these ideas will have to be changed.