In the last 10 years substantial research has been applied to a number of topics in consumer behavior. Most of the studies have involved concepts and propositions formulated on the basis of social psychological theories. One such theory which has been found to have applications to consumer behavior is the theory of cognitive dissonance [7, 20]. Several articles have provided critical reviews of...

According to many modern economic theories, actions simply reflect an individual's preferences, whereas a psychological phenomenon called "cognitive dissonance" claims that actions can also create preference. Cognitive dissonance theory states that after making a difficult choice between two equally preferred items, the act of rejecting a favorite item induces an uncomfortable feeling (cognitiv...

In a study exploring the origins of cognitive dissonance, preschoolers and capuchins were given a choice between two equally preferred alternatives (two different stickers and two differently colored M&M’s, respectively). On the basis of previous research with adults, this choice was thought to cause dissonance because it conflicted with subjects’ belief that the two options were equally valuab...

The potential for conflicting information to be transmitted by different automated alerting systems is growing as these systems become more pervasive in process operations. Newly-introduced alerting systems must be carefully designed to minimize the potential for and impact of alerting conflicts (or dissonance), but little is currently available to aid this process. The development of a model o...

Using cognitive dissonance theories and selfdetermination theory, we explored the role of individual differences in global and contextual motivational orientations on dissonance arousal processes following spontaneous attitude–behaviour inconsistencies (ABIs). Study 1 (N = 382) showed that individual differences in global motivation relate to the frequency of ABIs and dissonance arousal across ...