Cognitive Dissonance

1957

Leon Festinger (1919–1989)

A major social-psychology theorist of the twentieth century, Leon Festinger made important contributions to how we manage our sense of self and to how we maintain consistency in our beliefs and attitudes. As a result of his research, the field of American social psychology became increasingly oriented toward internal, cognitive states to explain social phenomena. This was not the case elsewhere in the world. His main contribution to the cognitive turn in social psychology was his often-cited book A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (1957).

Festinger grew up in New York City and earned his undergraduate degree at City College of New York, where the psychology department stressed an engagement with real-life applications. He then earned his graduate degrees at the University of Iowa and came under the influence of the Gestalt émigré psychologist Kurt Lewin. After World War II, Festinger worked with Lewin at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as a member of Lewin’s innovative Research Center for Group Dynamics. Festinger’s work in social psychology owes much to Lewin’s Gestalt approach, especially the principle that the organism seeks to maintain a sense of social and cognitive balance.

Cognitive dissonance theory posits three basic assumptions. The first is that cognitions (or beliefs or attitudes) may be related to other beliefs. For example, “I am religious” is related to “I attend church regularly.” The second assumption is that related beliefs may be contradictory; this is the basis for the emergence of cognitive dissonance. The third assumption is that humans are motivated to reduce dissonance, regain their cognitive balance, and restore the Gestalt.

When the degree of dissonance is great, as when important beliefs or self-perceptions are involved, we become highly motivated to reduce the dissonance. Festinger suggested that we do this by changing one of the dissonant beliefs or attitudes so that it is consistent with the other important related cognition. For example, you love basketball and you believe you are a very good player, but when you try out for your high school team, you don’t make the cut. This creates dissonance that you may try to reduce by telling yourself that basketball isn’t so great after all.

SEE ALSO Conformity and Independence (1951), Fundamental Attribution Error (1958)

An engraving of “The Fox and the Grapes” from Aesop’s Fables, 1879, illustrating the concept of cognitive dissonance. A limerick version of the fable reads: “This fox has a longing for grapes. He jumps, but the bunch still escapes. So he goes away sour; and, ‘tis said, to this hour, declares that he’s no taste for grapes.”