Once a reduction strategy is implemented, the individual’s response will feed back into the initial interpretation of the situation and a new evaluation will take place. For example, when the individual engages in a dissonant situation, a change/modification of the initial attitude might take place. Interestingly, this may in turn lead to more positive emotions toward the situation–since the individual has managed to accommodate the modified attitude into the existing cognitive structure. Empirical findings, across several experiments, have actually shown a strong positive relationship between positive emotions and attitude change in the induced-compliance paradigm (Cancino-Montecinos et al., 2018).

However, once the individual is stuck in the situation (situations resembling induced compliance, induced hypocrisy, or effort justification) avoidance is no longer available, and distraction might be too difficult to employ. In what we call the primary reduction stage (see left-hand side of Figure 1), the intensity of the initial negative arousal will be the first factor influencing how people reduce dissonance (cf. Sheppes’ model). The intensity of the initial negative arousal is in turn dependent on the magnitude of dissonance (i.e., all dissonant cognitions/all consonant cognitions + all dissonant cognitions), and whether the situation is novel or familiar. That is, the larger the magnitude of dissonance the more intense the negative arousal, however, novel situations may be more emotionally intense because the individual lacks an automated response to the dissonant stimuli. Note that the magnitude of dissonance and the novel-familiar dimension of the situation independently influence negative arousal in our model.

Teaching Strategies

Given that most research on dissonance has been performed on university students, a lifespan perspective might be a very important issue to consider. As for qualitative analyses, using a think aloud protocol in typical dissonant experiments might give researchers more insight into people’s thought process during the dissonant episode. Another way to approach people’s thoughts might be to ask them to indicate why (in one or a couple of sentences) they experience certain emotions during a dissonant situation. Furthermore, a non-linear perspective could also propel dissonance theory forward. In a dissonance context, this could explain how, over time, feedback from the social environment alters the individual’s thoughts and emotions in different situations–eventually changing habitual responses and giving rise to new ways of reducing dissonance.

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How to use cognitive dissonance in a sentence

For instance, when the cognitive conflict is made highly salient, or self-affirmation is readily available, trivialization will be more likely. Cognitive dissonance has been studied for more than 60 years and many insightful findings have come from this research. However, some important theoretical and methodological issues are yet to be resolved, particularly regarding dissonance reduction.

Since the model is recursive, the subsequent emotion might be a feeling of satisfaction, for example when successfully standing up for oneself when someone (parent, spouse, boss, etc.) has induced you to behave in a way that contradicts your attitude/values. However, when such attempts to stand up for oneself in anger-dominated situations fail, the anger might be replaced by a depressed mood and avoidance behavior instead (see, e.g., Harmon-Jones and Harmon-Jones, 2016). If the feeling is slight irritation, rather than full-blown anger, the individual might be fine with simply denying responsibility for the dissonant behavior (i.e., finding an external cause for the behavior). If successfully implemented, the individual might feel relief after denying responsibility.

The Original Dissonance Theory and Related Research

This is exciting, because it means we’re always learning, but it can lead to cognitive dissonance. If a person finds themselves in a situation where they have to do something that they don’t agree with, they’ll experience discomfort. Since they can’t escape the action, they attempt to re-establish their reasons for doing it in a way that makes the action acceptable.