Cognitive Dissonance is the distressing mental state caused by inconsistency between a persons two beliefs or a belief and an action. Festinger hypothesized three ways that people could prevent dissonance. One of them was Selective Exposure which is the tendency of people to avoid information that would create cognitive dissonance because its incompatible with their beliefs. Another one is Post decision Dissonance which is strong doubts experienced after making an important decision that you cant go back on. This hypothesis requires someone to reassure them or reassure themselves that they are making the right decision. Finally the third is the Minimal Justification Hypothesis which is a claim that the best way to stimulate an attitude change in others is to offer just enough incentive to elicit counterattitudinal behavior.

An example of the second hypothesis (post decision Dissonance) can be seen in college football all the time when coaches leave schools they have been at for a while to go to a different school that they think will be better. There is no going back once they make that choice and at times they could really regret and have some serious dissonance from leaving all the recent players and everything behind. They need constant reminding that the decision they made was the right one.