The Motivating Effect of Cognitive Dissonance

Well first thing is first, looking at the posts of my fellow classmates here, I fully agree that this article is terribly written. I have read it two times, and in all honesty for me to even read something one time speaks volumes; so I actually made an effort to fully comprehend this article and only got a portion of it. That being said I fully understand the principle of cognitive dissonance. Check. The part where Festinger lost me was the entire experimental section. I found myself completely confused when I came upon both of the experiments that were conducted. The first one just seemed to be about a bunch of morons who halfway thought that the world was going to end and they were going to be beamed up into a flying saucer. I laugh as I type this but then I think about this past summer how a bunch of people seriously believed that the "Rapture" was going to take place and the world was on the verge of ending; so in essence these naive people really do exist. Now back to the point.

This article defines Cognitive Dissonance as the relation between cognitions which exist simultaneously for a person; the example provided is an intelligent, capable person who meets nothing but constant failure. The one thing that the author did here was the lone part of the article that I actually liked; he gave a good segway into how cognitive dissonance can be used as a state of motivation. Besides, isn't the point of this class to discuss motivation? Cognitive dissonance gives rise to activity oriented toward reducing or eliminating the dissonance, thus the successful reduction of the dissonance is comparable to eating to cease your hunger.

I have had several clashes with thoughts of dissonance; a somewhat recent example of which would be that two summers ago we made it to the championship game in my summer basketball league. We lost by 2 points and I happened to play very poorly that game. So during the fall, winter, and spring I dedicated myself to improving my game so that I would not make the same mistake the following summer. In terms of breaking this down (Festinger should try breaking things down once in a while), the cognitions going through my mind were: I am a very good player, but I cannot win a championship; so by practicing and improving and eventually winning, I was motivated and ultimately reduced the dissonance. I'm not one of those guys that attempts to preach my life story to the crowd, but I attempted to use this example because for me it was easy to use since I'm really into sports.

"The Motivating Effects of Cognitive Dissonance"

After reading the article twice, I would like to say it was ridiculously written and rather idiotic. I can understand the purpose of a previous literature review, but it could have done just as well without the non-sense, like excessive wordiness.

That being said, Festinger states that cognitive dissonance is a motivating state for human beings. It is the kind of relationship between cognitions which exist simultaneously for a person. In other words, cognitive dissonance represents two things that do not fit or belong together. An example given in the article was that of a smart man with repeated failure. I do not know if I agree with Festinger, or perhaps I still do not understand fully. What is the difference between cognitive dissonance and reality of things? Maybe that man was not meant to succeed. No one is perfect-- failure is inevitable.

When it comes to cognitive dissonant, is it not human nature for someone to fix something that is not working for him/her? In my opinion, it seems like common sense. If something was not working for me, I would try something different. Lastly, I feel that the experiments were not so reliable, maybe even a joke. You have people that make careers out of 'kill for hire'. Of course people will do things for money! A relatively simple concept, that yes, people will work and try harder for more money.

Cognitive Dissonance

I have read this article at least five tmes and I still am in the dark. However I do understand what Cognitive dissonance means. I believe everyone goes through this every day and we dont realize it; or we did and never knew this is what it was called. If Iam reading this right then you could say we experience this when we try on different outfits and when we try new things that dont go right. When we see that something doesnt match or the thing we tried, like maybe going, dosnt go right, we work to make it bettter. We find new recipes or spice up the food or maybe when we cant pick the right outfit, we motivate ourselves to find the better looking things, to be better. However, reading about those people who really thought the UFO was coming was crazy to me. Yet they still have the Cognitive dissonance occur because they thought if they changed A they would get B. We go through this kind of dissonance everyday weither its school, work, or something you try to do every day, we always seem to want to make ourselves better.

"The Motivating Effect of Cognitive Dissonance"

The article entitled "The Motivating Effect of Cognitive Dissonance" was an intriguing read that provided insight regarding the phenomenon Festinger calls "Cognitive Dissonance." Prior to reading this article, I had never heard of this phenomenon, but after the completion of my reading I can see how this pertains to human beings in everyday life situations. The author equally compares cognitive dissonance to motivation as hunger is to motivation; both cognitive dissonance and hunger serve as a "push" factor, in which we are then instinctively urged to satisfy the "craving."

Festinger's example of the catastrophic flood that would "fictitiously" occur, and the flying saucer that would rescue the helpless civilians was paramount; we are convinced that what we believe in is the "right" way, so to speak, regardless of any other circumstance. The people believed that this major flood would come and that they would be saved by a UFO because of their belief in their own respective gods. It did not matter if it sounded crazy or if it was perceived as being crazy by anyone else; the fact that the people had their own set belief(s) and that both the flood and saucer never came illustrates this dissonance that seems to blind us, if you will. The same can be said with any particular religion in the world. Human beings believe and practice their religion because they have "faith" in it, and it is that very notion that can sometimes cause a disillusion, a cognitive dissonance, because their "faith" does not match up to what is occurring in the real world.

I believe that cognitive dissonance keeps us all alive in a sense. Most of us want to do well to succeed in the world, and if we are not doing it we want to believe that we can do it. We want to go to school to get a good education; we want to enter a career with the incentive of making a lot of money; we want to find "the one" in order to start a family and raise children. Without the belief of something serving to motivate us, then why are we even living? I pose this question: Would human beings still have a desire to live without faith or a belief in something to spark a fire in us?

Cognitive Dissonance

The article, "The Motivating Effect of Cognitive Dissonance," first tries to conceptualize the definition of dissonance. The author says that the word dissonance is an incongruence or inconsistence. A relationship has dissonance when two things occur together however in some way they do not fit together, therefore creating an incongruence. It made sense to me when the author used a persons intelligence as as example. A person might know he is very intelligent however he or she is aware they repeatedly fail. These two thoughts or cognitions are dissonant. The author then argues that this idea is motivating just as much as other need states such as hunger are motivating. I can understand where the author is coming from because he says a person will be motivated to change one of their thoughts so that they actually do fit together. The experiments the author talked about were a little confusing but still interesting. I liked the way they induced dissonance by having the students say something that didn't fit into their original beliefs. Although this was an experiment I think that people could induce dissonance on themselves without knowing, but doing so they are motivated to move away from their incongruent thoughts. This could be true with social norms and the beliefs people have about different races, cultures, and stereotypes. They might have conflicting ideas, but overall maybe be motivated to agree with others and have only one thought so that they fit in with societal norms. I think it would interesting to look into cognitive dissonance among different ethnic and religious groups in society, and how their conflicting cognitions affect and motive them.

Cognitive Dissonance

After reading The Motivating Effect of Cognitive Dissonance, by Leon Festinger I found the concept of Cognitive Dissonance to be  both interesting and a clear motivating factor within individuals.  In this article, Festinger gave us an example of reduction dissonance that took place in individuals that believed numerous times that a flood was going to end the earth.  These individuals also believed that aliens would come to earth to rescue them from this great flood. Of course neither of these events took place, and the individuals were left trying to reduce the dissonance by explaining away why these events did not occur as they had predicted.
 A more current example of Cognitive Dissonance, is Harold Camping's many followers before and after his highly publicized prediction of the Judgement day.  Many individuals ran around in fear on May 21, 2011 not knowing what to expect, and waiting for the world to end. This is not the first time Harold Camping has made a false prediction about the Judgment day.   Camping's first prediction was in 1994, and like May 21, 2011, that date came and went.  Camping  is now predicting that the world will end October 21, 2011.  There are many individuals who continue to follow Camping even though his predictions are proven wrong time and time again.  Many refuse to realize that although Camping claims to be Christian his beliefs and doctrine are questionable, and suggest otherwise.  In fact, the Bible clearly states, "But of that day and [that] hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.  Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is." (King James Version Mark 13:32-33)
I feel that Cognitive Dissonance is a strong motivational factor within humans.  This can be clearly seen  through the individuals in the article and Harold Camping's faithful followers.  These instances also prove that  it is very common for individuals to change different aspects of situations or form excuses, to  lesson or eliminate the Dissonance.

Cognitive Dissonance

I think one of the reasons so many students struggled with the article on Cognitive Dissonance is because cognitive dissonance, by nature, is confusing. When our beliefs are torn between logic, there is an inevitable increase in doubt and confusion. The effects can often be overwhelming, and it is always circumstantial when it comes to severity. For example, the aforementioned group who experienced their beliefs to be challenged when neither flying saucer nor flood appeared when expected is an extreme case and therefore all the more unique. The end result of the group of "believers" not abandoning hope vs the ones who were left to experience their own disappointment alone was particularly interesting, as it affirms not only humanity's avid willingness to believe whatever provides them the most comfort (in the case of the "congratulations, you saved the world without knowing it!" group) but it also has some profound undertones in regards to how mankind views religion and divine worship as a group activity.

However, I was a bit skeptical about the experiment listed at the end. Not only because the explanation left something to be desired (and at least a second read) but because the selection of test subjects seemed a bit unstable. One has to assume that any student studying Psychology at Stanford, even if it is an intro course and especially if they were made aware that they would be test subjects at times in their study, would be intelligent enough to automatically take on some type of agency in the experiments they participate in. Whether their intents were to sabotage or supplement the tested material remains to be seen, but I find it hard to believe that highly capable Psychology students did not take on some bit of personal motive when participating in this experiment. I feel it would be much better as a (completely) blind study, perhaps involving people of different age groups and walks of life, before tying in any significant determination about mankind's means of reacting to cognitive dissonance. As it stands, I think the experience the religious group had serves as a much better indicator to mankind's willingness to accept/avoid belief systems when cognitive dissonance is a factor.

First post- Cognitive Dissonance

In this article, Leon Festinger presents Cognitive Dissonance as a motivational state. I definitely agree with his theory that this dissonance causes a sense of motivation within humans. When something we personally feel is against the norm or social acceptance, sometimes it is that much more motivating to have it become correct because of the dissatisfaction of the two not fitting together. With the social support of others, it is easier for us to cognitively accept something as correct even without full acceptance because we know we are not alone in our thoughts. People are motivated to dig deeper for explanation when conflict in their cognition occurs, and they use these explanations to justify their dissonant thoughts.

Cognitive Dissonance

Before reading this article, I was unfamiliar with the terms and concept of cognitive dissonance and I was interested in learning about it. After reading the article, I was left somewhat unfulfilled because I was still not too sure what it was. I started to understand what dissonance was when the author described it in relation with musical tones. A dissonant relationship occurs between two tones when they are mixed and sound unpleasant together. So a dissonant relation exists between things do not fit together. I also was able to comprehend when he started to describe it with a relation to people. He claimed that if a person knew two things, something about himself and something about the world he lived in but somehow they did not fit together, that would be cognitive dissonance. The person was smart and capable, but has met failure - two things that do not fit together.

I was also eager to understand how this concept tied in with motivation. The author explained that cognitive dissonance is motivating just as hunger is motivating. If two things do not fit together, one is motivated to change one of the things so that they do fit together therefore eliminating the dissonance. Soon after I started to understand, the author lost me again. His examples of the experiments were interesting to read, but I struggled relating them to the concept. I am still trying to piece together the flood/flying saucer example. I believe at the end of the ordeal they tried to reduce the dissonance by going public and having more people believe that these messages were really delivered. If more people believed it, then the fact that the saucer never came to pick them up would not matter as much because there were still believers? I am still not too sure how to connect everything together, but as I re read the article some things become a little more clear.

Overall, it is an interesting topic and I would be interested in continuing to learn about it. Perhaps reading another article will shed more light on the idea, making it easier to understand.


Sources - The Motivating Effect of Cognitive Dissonance by Leon Festinger

As with several others, after reading the article on cognitive dissonance, I was left rather confused. I have heard of cognitive dissonance in previous Psychology classes, but I found the meaning of this article was rather scrambled. The definition of cognitive dissonance itself was easy to understand and grasp, but once the authors started going into examples and trying to explain the experiments, the confusion began. The example of the flood is almost absurd to me; I see the connection between the thought of the flood and cognitive dissonance because on the day the flood was supposed to come, it hadn't, but they believed it would. The absurd part to me is that they actually believed that such a catastrophic flood could be predicted so narrowed to a certain date. The experiment involving the Intro to Psych students at Stanford really helped explain cognitive dissonance to an understandable level. In the first sentence under 'An Experimental Investigation" the authors stated that they created dissonance by inducing the students to say something that intentionally went against their personal belief. After reading that entire section, I understood the article a lot better, but still feel that the meaning is still a little scrambled and confusing because of the other examples given.

1st - Motivation

I admit that I never really looked deep into our motivation for doing something or engaging in a particular action. For example, I never really thought there was an underlying motive or incentive for why I ate; I would have just assumed, well, because I am hungry. However, after reading about the push/pull motivation theory, I now realize that there is a motive/incentive behind everything we do; every action, every emotion, every behavior. An action can start with either a motive pushing someone to do something or an incentive that is pulling or enticing someone to do something. As far as emotion is concerned, I personally just attributed to the way I feel. If I am frustrated, it’s just because that’s how I feel today. I never necessarily broke it down and thought my frustration may be a result of a blocked goal. I found a somewhat relatable, very cute video in which it shows someone becoming frustrated (emotion) from not being understood (blocked goal). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nGvykFLUu0

First Post - Motivating Effect of Cognitive Dissonance

When I first read the article "The Motivation Effect of Cognitive Dissonance" I was extremely lost. After the article a few times the concept of Cognitive Dissonance begins to make sense, however I still have a difficult time comprehending the experiment/observations of it. But the actual concept of dissonance does make sense and I realized that I experience this phenomenon quite often.

After realizing that I personally experience it, I decided to keep track of it for a day. I found that when it came to classes, my appearance, my food choices, friendships and activities, I had dissonant thoughts. I then became conscience of it's motivating capacity. Having these conflicting feelings gave me the drive to close the gap. One minute I would find myself saying that I could not handle all my class work. The next I found myself making lists and schedule my day to make sure I would be able to get all my working done and saying this is not bad at all. At one point I felt out of shape and that I looked like a mess. But later that night I thought I looked amazing and couldn't have been happier. I think we all experience dissonance, but it is not always as common to be aware of it.

After reading the article, I have definitely become more aware of how much cognitive dissonance motivates me in my everyday life. I now make note of when I have dissonant thoughts and make sure I use them in a productive and motivating manner. It is a great tool to motivate yourself and believe it or not you feel better once the conflicting thoughts are gone.

Cognitive Dissonance

The Motivating Effect of Cognitive Dissonance

This article was not easy to understand. I am not exactly sure how to explain what cognitive dissonance is. According to the author, “dissonance relation exists between two things which occur together, if, in some way, they do not belong together or fit together.” The experiment about a flood that would overwhelm the world was interesting though. It was odd that these people kept convincing themselves that a flying saucer was going to pick them up. It was even more interesting that while the people were in a group there hope was stronger than if they were alone. In conclusion, “if two cognitions are dissonant with each other there will be some tendency for the person to attempt to change one of them so that they do fit together, thus reducing or eliminating the dissonance.”

**Cognitive Dissonance Song**

Motivation and Self-Regulation

In order motivate a person to achieve incentive, one must possess energy and strength. The energy that is needed for us to be motivated can be psychological or physical energy. Psychological energy is that of the mind, which results from an accumulation of energy within the brain’s neurons, leaving us with a feeling of pleasure. Physical energy on the other hand is a material needs, and often linked with glucose levels in our body, a key element for motivation.

An article written by Roy F. Baumeister and Kathleen D. Vohs, discusses how motivation contributes to one’s self-regulation and strength. Self-regulation is the ability to control one's emotions, behaviors and desires,in order to obtain some reward later. According to Baumeister and Vohs, there are four key elements in describing self-regulation; standards, monitoring, willpower and motivation. A portion of each of these elements is important in have self-regulation against urges and desires. If a person’s standards are high, it helps them to monitor their behavior, using their willpower, which ultimately gives them the motivation to behave in a way that will attain their reward, or incentive.

An example of this in my life would be a party that I was attending with fellow employees. My incentive would be the need to belong; I was new to work, and wanted to fit in with the rest of the staff. I knew that my manager would be at the party, and I wanted to prove to her that I was responsible, while still socializing and making friends. From the start of the night, I set certain standards for myself: I was not going to drink, and I was going to leave at an appropriate time, due to work the next morning. I monitored the time, in order to avoid staying too late. Thanks to my willpower, I was able to say no to drinks that were offered to me several times throughout the night. My motivation to achieve the goal worked out in my favor. I was home at a reasonable time, and promptly arrived at work the next day. I was complimented by my manager on my ability to behave as an adult, and my reward would be gaining new friends as well as respect at my place of work.

The video below is a fun, animated way to show us how incentives, and different levels of incentives, and motivate us in a certain way. It demonstrates how a larger reward can cause a higher level of motivation.

¹ http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/compass/spco_001.pdf
Baumeister, Roy and Vohs, Kathleen Social and Personality Psychology Compass 1 (2007)

Kate McGinley- Motivation PSYC3380

Dissonance causes conflict : Post 1 Festinger

Dissonance causes conflict : Post 1 Festinger

Psychologist Festinger’s theory on the motivation effects of cognitive dissonance was very difficult to understand but it was also interesting at the same time. From what I read, my understanding was that sometimes when faced with certain decisions or situation that conflict with our personal beliefs or values, this unsatisfactory or dissatisfaction causes cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance, meaning the two subjects in question does not fit together. This conflict causes motivation which makes us want to change the dissonance by at least changing the way we think or view the subject in question. For example, as a Christian, I believe that God created everything in the universe including humans, this is something I hold to be true because I was brought up and taught this growing up but on the contrary, I may also have some doubts when studying science and its different explanation of how the world was made. This two different beliefs have caused a cognitive dissonance especially if it begins to affect the way I think, this brings about motivation to try and eliminate one ; I may ignore what my religion tells me and accept the science or vice versa.

Cognitive Disonance

After finally reading to the end of the article, i realize that I don't really understand what I had just read five minutes ago. I found the article to be very confusing and I didn't really understand the point to some of the things the author was saying. Especially with the experiment at the end of the article, I wasn't able to follow that at all. If the story about the college students and the UFO was a real thing, I don't understand how that makes sense really. On a good note, I now know a brief definition of what cognitive dissonance is: a disagreement or confusion about prior knowledge. Well at least I believe I know what it is.

Overall, I feel as though i am more confused about the topic than I was before I started reading.

Behavior & Cognitive Dissonance

Festinger's article was not easy to read but the title states it all "The Motivating Effect of Cognitive Dissonance". I see the term as what drives our behavior and reactions to new experiences every day. Conflicts between our present beliefs and decisions we have to make daily form the basis for future beliefs. Dissonance can vary dependent on how much importance the issue holds for us, if the conflicts are similar and if we are able to rationalize our actions. We often rationalize the issue to nothing and no longer see it as a problem. The process used following cognitive dissonance helps us to make different (and hopefully) better and more efficient decisions next time.

The Motivating Effect of Cognitive Dissonance

I personally found this article to be confusing and thought the that author kind of bounced around a bit with his ideas.

I did pick up on the meaning of cognitive dissonance, with me being a senior I have been through many psychology classes and have heard the term a lot but never really fully understood what it meant. While reading this article the part that made the meaning of cognitive dissonance was the example that was given, "a person might know that he is very intelligent, highly capable person. At the same time, let us imagine, he knows that he meets repeated failure. These two cognitions would be dissonant- they do not fit together.

Therefore, even though I found the article a bit confusing, I was able to pick up on cognitive dissonance, which I have heard in other classes but never fully understood. So, I walked away from this article with learning something.

First Post: Cognitive Dissonance

For me, the article was aggravating to comprehend. I couldn't quite grasp the concept of dissonance and Festinger's experiment's fully. He seemed to jump around the page with his thoughts which made reading the article a bit annoying. From what I have gathered, cognitive dissonance is much like a obsessive hoarder may encounter.

The individual may have been raised in a very clean and respectable household. Now approaching middle age, this person may have developed conflicting beliefs on how to live in a household. A dissonance between knowing what's best and doing what's best for the well being of one's home and health. That individual may have a house full of miscellaneous items gathers throughout the living space that restricts normal daily functioning. He or she may not like the clutter but continues to avoid cleaning the space because they're alone, depressed, or has a psychological disorder. In many cases, the task is too overwhelming so the mess remains regardless of personal choice.

This is my take on the article from Leon Festinger "Motivating Effect of Cognitive Dissonance"

Cognitive Dissonance Article

Throughout my many psych courses I have heard congnitive dissonance mention, but never really understood it until reading this article. The ordinary meaning of dissonance is "I want to give it." Some of synonyms for dissonance include; harshe, jarring, inconsistent, and disagreeing.

"Cognitive dissonance refers to this kind of relation between cognitions which exists simltaneously for a person. " The example the author used to explain this was "If a person knows two things, something about himself and something about the world, which somehow do not fit together, this would represent cognitive dissonance. " A person might know he is a very intelligent, highly capable person. Now, imagine that he meets repeated failure. "These two cognitions would be dissont- they do not fit together."

Cognitive dissonance also resembles other need states. This relates to the motivating aspects of cognitive dissonance. In the article it states that cognitive dissonace is motivating in the same way that hunger is. "Cognitive dissonance will give rise to activity oriented toward reducing or eliminating the dissonance. Successful reduction of dissonance is rewarding in the same sense that eating when one is hungry is rewarding." I felt that when stated this way it is much easier to understand cognitive dissonanxe and how it resembles other need states.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nviypXVSCX0

Breanne Bryson