The cognitive dissonance theory was created by Leon Festinger and he defined it as “distressing mental state caused by inconsistency between a persons two beliefs or a belief and an action”. The book also stated that there were three was that people can prevent dissonance. The three ways were Selective exposure, post decision dissonance and minimal justification. Selective exposure was when people avoid new information because it might interference with their own beliefs. Then post decision dissonance was when rethinking a decision that you already made and minimal justification was a way to stimulate an attitude change in others is to offer just enough incentive to elicit counterattitudinal behavior.

Leon Festinger’s Theory of Cognitive Dissonance is characterized by the mental anguish and stress caused when an individual holds contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values. The theory states that the discomfort felt by a person experiencing cognitive dissonance will act as a motivating force to reduce the dissonance. In addition to attempting to reduce the dissonance, that a person will actively avoid any new information that may increase the feelings of dissonance.

An example of Cognitive Dissonance Theory could be seen in Internalized Homophobia. In today’s society where suicides resulting from bullying are becoming more and more prevalent, I believe Internalized Homophobia to be one of the main reasons. Many children are raised thinking that homosexuality is wrong, and therefore anyone who participates in homosexual behavior is wrong as well. As young men and women begin to identify as Homosexual, their ideas, beliefs, and values begin to become misaligned. Many homosexuals will even admit to having participating in homophobic bullying in an attempt to cloak their sexuality and relieve some of the dissonance.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory, created by Leon Festinger, is “a distressing mental state caused by inconsistency between a person’s two beliefs or a belief and an action.” Festinger made three hypotheses to go along with this theory. The second of the three hypothesis is called Postdecision Dissonance. This dissonance is similar to buyer’s remorse. One feels a great amount of tension after they have bought something and starts questioning themselves. However, buying something isn’t always the situation. This type of tension can happen after any difficult decision has been made. After the decision has been made, the person then questions themselves on whether or not they made the right decision.

In the movie, The Sandlot, the main character, Smalls, hits his dads baseball over the fence. After, all of his friends question him about why he did that since that baseball was personally signed by Babe Ruth. Smalls feels instant guilt and he is filled with anger because of his decision to hit the baseball over the fence. Smalls has increased his post decision dissonance because of the fact that he hit his father’s precious signed baseball over the fence where a ferocious dog, otherwise known as The Beast lives.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sandlot+great+bambino

Cognitive Dissonance is a distressing mental state caused by inconsistency between a person’s two beliefs or a belief and an action. One mental mechanism of the Cognitive Dissonance Theory is Selective Exposure which causes people to avoid information that would create cognitive dissonance because it’s incompatible with their current beliefs. An example of Selective Exposure would be how wealthy people tend to only hang around other wealthy people and be members of gentleman’s clubs, yacht clubs, etc. to either avoid the sight of lesser class individuals or poverty around them, which they may choose to ignore. This helps people to avoid dissonance and turn a blind eye to what they don’t believe currently.

Postdecision dissonance is defined as, “strong doubts experienced after making an important, close-call decision that is difficult to reverse.” There are three things that play a role within this term. The more important the decision that needs to be made, the more time one will take in making the actual decision, and the greater the difficulty it is to stay with your decision once its been made if one feels it needs to be reversed. The example used in the book is what an individual feels after having bought a new car. They start to question if they made the right choice, but its too late to do anything about it. It is almost like having buyers remorse.

For example, in the movie, John Tucker Must Die, four girls try to destroy a guy named John Tucker. Three of the four have previously dated him and the fourth, Kate, becomes his new love interest on purpose. The three girls use Kate to get back at John by manipulating him to fall in love with her. In return, John does end up falling for Kate. Once Kate realizes he is starting to fall for her she immediately starts to feel bad and wants to stop, yet she is in too deep. Even though she feels doubt, the decision she made to help the girls cannot be taken back.

This example from John Tucker Must Die is just like the example used in the book about buying a new car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEnLySS2Op8