Introduction

1957 marked the release of the unitary volume of work entitled "A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance".  It's author, Stanford Professor of Psychology Dr. Leon Festinger noticed a tendency for individuals to seek consistency among their attitudes and behaviors (Festinger, 1957).  Sometimes a situation arises where attitudes or beliefs and behaviors are not consistent with each other - thus known as dissonance.  Festinger states "the existence of dissonance, being psychologically uncomfortable, will motivate the person to try to reduce the dissonance and achieve consonance" and " when dissonance is present, in addition to trying to reduce it, the person will actively avoid situations and information which would likely increase the dissonance" (Festinger 1957).  Therefore, in a given situation, an individual must choose between two incompatible beliefs or actions.  In this theory it is revealed that attitude change generally moves in the direction of less incentive (for the individual) resulting in less dissonance as opposed to most behavioral theories which predict greater attitude change with increased incentive (for example, reinforcement). The theory discusses how individuals will make that change in an effort to eliminate the dissonance and reduce the distress felt as a result of the conflict. 

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