Much of the CDT research being done today centers around experiments which try to prove or disprove a conclusive link between physiological arousal in motivating a person to change an attitude in the presence high dissonance. The author of this paper found several studies of experiments in physiological arousal and attitude change in cognitive dissonance research throughout the 1970s and 1980s, both disputing and supporting an observable link. However, the current body of research remains inconclusive.

'Pallak and Pittman (1972) found that like other drive states, dissonance produced by an attitude-discrepant, freely chosen decision was associated with a high frequency of dominant responses that inhibited performance on a difficult verbal task and improved it on an easy verbal task. This led the researchers to conclude that there was evidence of a motivational drive state associated with dissonance arousal. However, when the experimenters provided high-dissonance subjects with a strong justification for their attitude-discrepant decision, these effects disappeared. This implies that once dissonance is reduced, drive and its associated tension is reduced' (source 4a). Elkin and Leippe, (1986) set out to find direct evidence for this relation by tracking the course physiological arousal takes following a dissonance-reducing attitude change (source 3). The researchers did find an observable link between CDT and physiological arousal but the study was inconclusive in establishing a link between high dissonance, dissonance reduction and attitude change. The authors state rather than putting forth the effort to change an inconsistent attitude, some people simply just forget about it because it is easier to forget about an inconsistent attitude than it is to change an inconsistent attitude.

Severin and Tankard (1997) make an interesting correlation between cognitive dissonance's selective exposure patterns (source 4) and entertainment selection that reduce dissonance. In a study by Zillman (1980) the researcher writes, 'the main message of television crime drama — namely, that criminals are being caught and put away, which should make the streets safer — apparently holds great appeal for those who worry about crime' (source 4). Imagine the implications this research holds for an advertiser of home security systems! Selective attention is not to be confused with the unproven theory of selective retention, wherein individuals remember things only if they fit into their frame of reference, belief system and values/attitudes.

Aronson (1997) writes again in defense of dissonance theory. He cites research by Swann and Read (1981) showing that people elicit behavior from each other that will lead to a verification of their own belief systems. Aronson asserts this is a manfestation of Festinger's original theory wherein Festinger maintains that 'one way to preserve one's consonance is by changing an environmental cognitive element. For example, a person who is habitually hostile toward other people may surround himself by people who provoke hostility. His cognitions about the persons with whom he associates are consonant with cognitions corresponding to his hostile behavior' (source 1).

Harmon-Jones and Mills (1999) do a beautiful summation on the impact of cognitive dissonance theory and its 42-year history of generating research. Over 70 faculty and students met for two days to discuss the theory and the book titled, 'Cognitive Dissonance: a Pivotal Theory in Social Psychology,' was an outgrowth of that unique meeting.

Festinger's theory was at first embraced, then criticized, then ignored. Research related to cognitive dissonance dominated the journals of social psychology from the late 1950s to the early 1970s (source 11). Today CDT has many detractors who doubt its validity as a theory. Many researchers have criticised the theory for being too broad and hard to prove. Other theories have attracted the attention of researchers and cognitive dissonance research has all but disappeared from the journals. Festinger believed in the utility of CDT in predicting human behavior to the day he died in 1987, though he had left the field of social psychology in 1964.

CDT's simplicity is its strength but it also seems to have been its downfall. In defense of a great theory, the words of a great man, Albert Einstein, said it best when he said, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler" (source 11).