sense, but cognitive dissonance is not that easy to predict. His results actually showed that a large reward caused a smaller subsequent change in opinion in participants than a lesser reward.
Cognitive dissonance is not that easy to predict
The example above is very simple and clear cut, but there are many facets that influence cognitive dissonance. In truth, the concept is as complicated as the execution is cunning. When cognitive dissonance was first being investigated Kelman (1953) postulated that if the contrary information being presented to the participant was supplemented by a reward, then the greater the value of the reward the more the participants opinion should shift towards the new information. Logically this makes 19
It was a few years later when Festinger (1957) and then Festinger & Carlsmith (1959) made real inroads into research on cognitive dissonance theory. They focused more on researching into how a person’s opinion changed if they were presented with information contrary to their opinion and had to reproduce that information in some format. Most of you reading this may be able to look back at times you have rationalized information to fit your opinion, but it’s much