Cognitive dissonance

An OECD study identifies several barriers for a new technology to penetrate the market (OECD, 2002). These are lack of awareness, cognitive dissonance, lack of concern for future generations, fear of and resistance to change and, finally, lack of adequate professional advice. Each of these barriers must be countered with special measures if the acceptance for a new technology, in this case hydrogen, is to be increased. 

The book concludes then, that whereas the aesthetic of the lawn may be old, indeed ancient, the turfgrass subject is new the urban person who is concerned about nature but uses chemicals, who supports the Kyoto Protocol but drives an SUV, who recycles fervently while constantly wasting more and more. Rather than condescendingly dismissing such inconsistencies as cognitive dissonance as is common to apolitical critique, the book advances an alternative, which emphasizes the range of constraints on our alternatives and that stresses the way the biotechnical machines we make increasingly make us who we are. 

Festinger, L. (1957) A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, Evanston, III. Row, Peterson. 

The motive i to reduce cognitive dissonance. Cp. E. Aronson (1972) The Social Animal, Ch. 4. San Francisco. 

To see why we can have explanatory power without predictive power, consider once again the redurtion of cognitive dissonance. In many people, this mechanism coexists with the exactly opposite one, captured in homely sayings such as "The... 

In his discussions of religion, Marx employs all the varieties of explanation distinguished in 8.1.2.1 have mentioned in 8.2.1 the causal interest-explanation in terms of what today we call cognitive dissonance. As will be shown below, he also occasionally uses a functional interest-explanation, in terms of the benefits popular religion brings to the ruling class. 

Festinger, L., and Bramel, D. (1962), The reactions of humans to cognitive dissonance," in A. Bachrach (ed ), The Experimental Foundations of Clinical Psychology, New York Basic Books, pp. 254-79,... 

Rule number one is to dress the part. If your standard daily attire includes a towel wrapped around your head, the chances of success are near zero. On the other extreme, a suit and tie will likely induce a state of cognitive dissonance in the supplier, and that could easily lead to suspicion and reporting. Similarly bad attire would be a brand new racing suit fresh from the Nascar circuit, complete with car numbers and advertisements. 

Many of the classic experiments in cognitive dissonance involved the unwillingness of subjects to entertain information that called into question decisions they had made in the past. According to equation (5),... 

In some circumstances a respondent might even surmise that the survey results will be used to increase or lower her own risk, and will therefore have an incentive to respond strategically. This is a survey researcher s worst nightmare. For a more detailed treatment of cognitive dissonance, see chapter 5. 

Akerlof, George and William Dickens. 1982. The Economic Consequences of Cognitive Dissonance. American Economic Review. June, 72(3) 307-19. 

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