Essay On Cognitive Dissonance Theory

The attitude-behavior relation is complex. To better understand why attitudes seemingly do not always produce actions, an understanding of cognitive dissonance theory is needed. This theory helps explain the attitude-behavior consistency gap. Using this theory, it can be understood that actions are aligned with, or will be altered to become aligned with, the most current attitude. When an attitude change occurs, behaviors will be produced that align with this new attitude. This allows the relations between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to be consistent with each other.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory and Attitude Change
In Aronson’s book, The Social Animal (2008), he explains that when thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are aligned, then we do not experience tension or “dissonance.” For example, when I think like a “good” person, feel like I am a “good’ person, and act …show more content…
One action-opinion theory is cognitive dissonance theory. Cognitive dissonance is important to the attitude-behavior relation because it is a disturbance that modifies the relation between attitudes and behaviors. When attitudes and behaviors are linked, dissonance is reduced. As explained in The Social Animal, the heads of cigarette companies are selling a product that leads to the death of millions of people. If you are the head of this company, you are essentially responsible for causing deaths due to cancer from smoking. Knowing you are responsible for causing these deaths can contradict your perception that you are a good person. According to cognitive dissonance theory, one way to relieve the dissonance caused by this contradiction is to distort reality. The heads of these companies smoke a large number of cigarettes a day to do just that. By smoking a lot of cigarettes, they are trying to say, “See, cigarettes are good for you. I’ll show you by smoking all these cigarettes.” This helps relieve their