Theories and Concepts

Cognitive Dissonance

Citation Formats

General Reference

Psychology Atlas. "Cognitive Dissonance." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-psychology.interactiveatlas.org/theories/cognitive-dissonance.

APA Style

Psychology Atlas. (n.d.). Cognitive Dissonance. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-psychology.interactiveatlas.org/theories/cognitive-dissonance

BibTeX

@misc{psychologyatlas-cognitive-dissonance,
  author = {Psychology Atlas},
  title = {Cognitive Dissonance},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-psychology.interactiveatlas.org/theories/cognitive-dissonance},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

A theory proposed by Leon Festinger in 1957 holding that people experience psychological discomfort when they hold two or more contradictory beliefs, values or attitudes at once, and are motivated to reduce that discomfort by changing a belief, adding a justifying belief, or changing their behavior.

Facts

Core Claim

Human beings strive for internal psychological consistency in order to function mentally in the real world, so a genuine contradiction between two held beliefs motivates a person to resolve it. 1

Origin Year

1957 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Festinger and Carlsmith's $1/$20 Experiment

This is the landmark experiment that first empirically demonstrated cognitive dissonance and insufficient justification.

Source Wikipedia: Cognitive dissonance

Replication Crisis

Why this is disputed. Classic mid-century social psychology findings, including some cognitive dissonance results, are among the studies whose robustness the replication-crisis literature has re-examined.

Source Wikipedia: Replication crisis

Social Comparison Theory

Festinger's two major theoretical contributions, seven years apart.