Festinger's Theory Of Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance has been demonstrated in various ways. At around the 1950s, Leon Festinger came to be the first psychologist to carry out a study on cognitive dissonance. Several other psychologists followed to do research on the theory of cognitive dissonance (Pliakou, 2014). Festinger is remembered for his outstanding works that include books and experiments. His work has been useful to the human race especially through enlightening on the effective ways that are required to decrease cognitive dissonance. Although Festinger was the first person to study the theory of cognitive dissonance, there was a Greek Fabulist known as Aesop who wrote a fable called "the fox and the grapes." Aesop existed before Festinger and wrote his work 560 BC. His fable was specifically written for children for children. This fable is a symbol, but it is a good illustration of cognitive dissonance (McKimmie, 2015). …show more content…
The grapes look very attractive due to their tasty looking shine and attractive color. The Fox admires the grapes and makes several attempts to get the grapes but all in vain. The cognitive thoughts and feelings of the fox as it can be seen from this fable is the desire for the grapes. The dissonance is developed when the Fox was unable to get the grapes. The only solution is to adapt to reduce the dissonance. Therefore, the Fox decides to walk away claiming that the grapes were sour. The reality is that the fox could not reach the grapes. The Fox decides to make its expectations agree with the reality by claiming that the grapes were sickening and sour. This fable depicts the meaning of Festingers's statement that says that people will develop a mechanism for reconciling their feelings that oppose them. Initially, the Fox had a positive perception about the grapes but when he could not attain them, he disliked the grapes thereby reconciling the dissonance (Perlovsky,