An Examination Of Festinger

’s Cognitive Dissonance Theory And Notable Modifications Essay, Research Paper

Sometimes the greatest test of a theory is its longevity. Over time, some theories will be disproved, some will be modified, and some will become the basis for a whole new group of theories. Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance has stood up to challenge for over forty years, and is considered by many to be the single most important theory of social psychology. Though there have been modifications to the theory after many recreations and simulations of the original 1957 experiment, few have been able to really disqualify Festinger’s findings. It would be safe to say that many people don’t even have a full grasp of the incredible implications that Festinger’s research and experiments have towards the self-concept and behavior, myself not excluded. The actual definition of cognitive dissonance is almost too simple: an unpleasant feeling that arises from the contradiction of belief and action. Festinger, however, went on to find that dissonance would in fact change attitudes over time, helping people to justify their behavior when they know it is clearly wrong.

Festinger’s original experiment was a simple procedure. Have someone perform a tedious task for a while, then inform the subject that the experiment is finished, but that they could be of assistance with the rest of the experiment as a research assistant. Festinger explained that his regular assistant was unable help that day, and that the experiment was an investigation of preconceptions on task performance. In other words, how will the performance differ when the subject has been told that the task is boring, as opposed to being told that the task is very enjoyable. Festinger offered the “assistant” either one or twenty dollars to tell the next subject in line for the boring task that it was highly enjoyable, and to be on call to act as an assistant in future experiments. In conclusion, Festinger found that the subjects who were paid one dollar actually came to believe that the experiment was enjoyable, as opposed to those who were paid twenty dollars. Incredible. Simple. The subjects who were paid twenty dollars have all the justification in the world for their actions, but the subjects who were only paid one dollar have reacted to the dissonance created by telling the lie for such a small price, and have actually led themselves to believe that the task was enjoyable to improve their self-esteem in regards to the lie.

Festinger concluded that over time dissonance would change attitudes. For example, cigarette smokers know that it is unhealthy to smoke, but they created an attitude to justify why they continue to smoke. If I quit smoking now, I will gain weight. I only smoke when I am drinking. I only smoke after a meal. But the dissonance theory is applicable to much bigger social opinions than smoking, for example: Aronson and Mills (1959) conducted an experiment in which some subjects were put through a harsh period of hazing during initiation into a group while other subjects had to endure only mild hazing. The end result was that the people who went through the sever initiation ended up liking that group a lot better than those who went through mild hazing. Going against the reinforcement theory (Aronson, 1997), the psychologists showed that the subjects came to favor things that they had to suffer to achieve. In other words, to go through a harsh initiation creates dissonance with the bad things about the group, and therefore the subjects reinvent their feelings about the group to be more positive, and make the whole process seem worthwhile. The subjects who only went through the mild initiation had no strong feelings for the group one way or another.

Dissonance theorists were able to apply their knowledge to a major social change when desegregation was being introduced into the schools in the 1950’s. The majority of psychologists involved felt strongly that desegregation should not be introduced in the south until the attitudes of prejudice and discrimination had been changed in the mainstream thinking, to do anything else would have created social turmoil and chaos, they believed. Dissonance theory researchers believed just the opposite, however. They argued that the only way to change the attitudes of prejudice was to desegregate immediately, and the change would follow (Brehm & Cohen, 1962). Specifically, once people started to social interact with those they had previously felt prejudice towards, they would create new attitudes to correspond with their new behavior, and decrease cognitive dissonance. Obviously the dissonance theorists were correct in their predictions, as prejudice diminished over the next decades (save for a few ignorant and resistant exceptions).

Since the 50’s, several modifications and additions have been made to Festinger’s original dissonance theory. Also, there have been several challenges to the theory, most of which are dismissed by the old school for having insufficient evidence or lack of experimental realism. Elliot Aronson was one of the major contributors to the theory, constantly updating and re-working his findings through the 90’s. His first major modification came in 1960. Aronson argued that dissonance was highest when rather than simply two cognitions were involved, but cognition about our self-concept and a behavior that contradicts the self-concept