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Attitudes

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Attitude Theories
Patricia Saylor
Strayer University Online

Prof. Robin Oatis-Ballew
May 6, 2012

Cognitive dissonance was fist examined by Leon Festinger, this arose from the observations he made of a cult whom believed that the earth would soon be destroyed by a flood. Members that had been faithful to the cult had to give up their homes and jobs to come and work for the cult. This came about after the fact the earth was not destroyed by the flood. The faithful members of the cult were ashamed and felt like they had made fools of themselves for believing that something like this was about to happen. According to cognitive dissonance theory, there is a tendency for individuals to seek consistency among their cognitions (beliefs, opinions). When there is an inconsistency between attitudes or behaviors (dissonance), something must change to eliminate the dissonance. In the case of a discrepancy between attitudes and behavior, it is most likely that the attitude will change to accommodate the behavior. This is the feeling of uncomfortable tension which comes from holding two conflicting thoughts in the mind at the same time. Dissonance increases with the importance of the subject to us, how strongly the dissonant thoughts conflict, our inability to rationalize and explain away the conflict. Two factors affect the strength of the dissonance: the number of dissonant beliefs, and the importance attached to each belief. There are three ways to eliminate dissonance: reduce the importance of the dissonant beliefs, add more consonant beliefs that outweigh the dissonant beliefs, or change the dissonant beliefs so that they are no longer inconsistent. There are also individual differences in whether or not people act as this theory predicts. Highly anxious people are more likely to do so. Many people seem able to cope with considerable dissonance and not

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