Cognitive Dissonance, step by step
Festinger's theory, and the classic demonstration.
- Hold two inconsistent cognitions'This task was boring' and 'I told someone it was interesting'.
- Experience discomfortThe inconsistency is aversive.
- Reduce itChange a cognition, add a consoling one, or minimise the importance.
- The cheapest change winsUsually the attitude, because behaviour has already happened.
Festinger & Carlsmith
- Paid $1 to lie: rated the task as enjoyable
- Paid $20 to lie: did not
- $20 justified the lie; $1 did not, so the attitude moved
Insufficient justification is the key: with a strong external reason, no dissonance arises and no attitude change follows.
Questions about the Cognitive Dissonance poster
- What’s on the Cognitive Dissonance poster?
- 4 numbered steps, with a full worked run-through. Festinger's theory, and the classic demonstration. Hold two inconsistent cognitions — 'This task was boring' and 'I told someone it was…; Experience discomfort — The inconsistency is aversive.; Reduce it — Change a cognition, add a consoling one, or minimise the importance.; The cheapest change wins — Usually the attitude, because behaviour has already happened.. Insufficient justification is the key: with a strong external reason, no dissonance arises and no attitude change follows.
- Who is the Cognitive Dissonance poster for?
- Cognitive Dissonance belongs to the Psychology section rather than to a school year, because life science is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning social can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Cognitive Dissonance poster?
- Attitudes change to fit behaviour more often than behaviour changes to fit attitudes. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Cognitive Dissonance belongs on the wall where that life science work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Cognitive Dissonance?
- Helping Behaviour, Attitudes & Behaviour and Attribution sit alongside Cognitive Dissonance in the Psychology section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Helping BehaviourAttitudes & BehaviourAttribution
- Is the Cognitive Dissonance poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Cognitive Dissonance downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Psychology section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Cognitive Dissonance poster print at?
- Cognitive Dissonance is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Cognitive Dissonance loses nothing.Printing guide
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