A RECENT theory by Festinger (1957) attempts to state the conditions under which discrepancies between cognitions produce "cognitive dissonance," a state of tension that motivates the individual to reduce or eliminate the discrepancies. One of the conditions that may be necessary for the creation of cognitive dissonance is that there be some element of volition. The theory states, for example, ...

Assisting a client to change their belief system has shown to be positively correlated with one’s mental health. Therefore, many therapists might agree that one goal of therapy is for their client to change their own belief systems in order to experience positive change. So then why, when confronted with a new experience or new information, does one individual choose to change their belief syst...

One of the most important tasks facing investors, auditors, and regulators is to identify misreporting by managers, preferably using ex ante signals. Hobson, Mayew, and Venkatachalam [2012] (henceforth, HMV) examine the use of CEOs’ voice markers of cognitive dissonance for detecting financial misreporting. Prior research on financial misreporting detection has focused mostly on financial measu...

Background The sunk cost effect is the scenario when individuals are willing to continue to invest capital in a failing project. The purpose of this study was to explain such irrational behavior by exploring how sunk costs affect individuals' willingness to continue investing in an unfavorable project and to understand the role of cognitive dissonance on the sunk cost effect. Methods This stu...

Cognitive dissonance theory shares much in common with other perspectives that address anomalies, uncertainty, and general expectancy violations. This has led some theorists to argue that these theories represent overlapping psychological processes. If responding to dissonance and uncertainty occurs through a common psychological process, one should expect that the behavioral outcomes of feelin...

A constraint satisfaction network model simulated cognitive dissonance data from the insufficient justification and free choice paradigms. The networks captured the psychological regularities in both paradigms. In the case of free choice, the model fit the human data better than did cognitive dissonance theory. Cognitive Dissonance Cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957) has been a pillar...