Many theorists regard Dr. Festinger's theory as solid.   According to Harmon-Jones and Mills (E. Harmon Jones and J. Mills, 1999) "dissonance theorists currently agree that genuine cognitive changes occur in dissonant studies...it is agreed that these cognitive changes are motivated in nature and that the source of the motivation is a form of psychological discomfort."

However, there are major areas of disagreement in the nature of the motivation beneath the cognitive that results from dissonance.  Controversy surrounds new findings which point out the fact that the original Festinger theory never specified a reliable way to detect the degree of dissonance a person experiences.  This was an issue of simplicity of the results.  Cornell University psychologist  Daryl Bem states that attitudes change when a person acts with minimal justification, but that self-perception is a much simpler explanation than cognitive dissonance.  Bem states that people judge the internal nature the way others do by observing their behavior. (Bem, 1967).  Bem conducted his own version of the classic Stanford experiment ($1/$20) to test his alternative explanation. 

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