Psychology cognitive dissonance

Cognitive Dissonance In modem psychology, cognitive dissonance is the feeling of discomfort when... 

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,... 

Cognitive dissonance theory The theory of cognitive dissonance, developed by Leon Festinger (1962), has been one of the most influential theories in social psychology. Festinger s fundamental assumption, for which there is considerable evidence, is that people like to see themselves, and be seen by others, as being consistent. This also applies to the relationship between attitudes and behaviour. What interested Festinger, therefore, was the situation in which there was a contradiction between a... 

The broad approach which provides an example of how we might go about changing beliefs is a wide variety of contexts is cognitive dissonance. This has been defined as A psychologically unpleasant state which arises when an individual holds two beliefs that are in conflict with each other. This dissonance can be reduced by changing one of the beliefs (Festinger, 1957, p. 8). 

A wonderful book. Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me), uses the psychological concept of cognitive dissonance reduction to explain how people, often subconsciously, successfully weed out information that might contradict their beliefs. 

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