Back to the Future Retrospective Review of Leon Festingers--a Theory of Cognitive Dissonance

Abstruse

This paper discusses the aspects of the cognitive noise theory. Cognitive dissonance was first introduced through social psychology, just still plays a fundamental part in public relations. Cognitive racket explains why people change their attitudes or behaviors when they are introduced to new and contradicting information. The main components of cerebral dissonance will be analyzed in this paper, and the importance of this theory in the field of public relations will besides exist discussed.

Keywords: cognitive racket, behavior, behaviors, change

Introduction

The theory of cognitive dissonance is nothing foreign to the public relations globe. Cognitive racket is the reason people react to new cognitions in a certain way, and change their behaviors or attitudes. People enjoy living in stability and when they are exposed to contradicting cognitions of their own preexisting beliefs or actions, they become distressed. This level of discomfort is known as cerebral dissonance, and individuals react to this in several unlike means in an endeavour to render to consistency. In public relations, the responsibility of the professional is to get a target audience to alter their established attitudes or behaviors. One of the main ways a public relations expert can become an audience to practise something is through cognitive dissonance. This paper goes into depth explaining how the components of the cognitive racket theory also play a fundamental role in the field of public relations. Before understanding how this theory relates to public relations, it is important to get a well-rounded agreement of what cognitive noise is.

Description of the Theory

Leon Festinger showtime developed the theory of cerebral dissonance through social psychology in 1957. Co-ordinate to cerebral dissonance, if a person holds two beliefs that are relevant to one another but are inconsistent, dissonance will arise. Co-ordinate to Marcia Gruber (2003), "Noise refers to the personal tension or stress experienced when an private's actions contradict or are inconsistent with his or her values or beliefs" (p. 242). In Festinger'southward inquiry he refers to inconsistency equally "noise" and consistency every bit "consonance". The theory of cognitive dissonance is equanimous of two parts. Get-go, the presence of dissonance will cause a person to endeavor to eliminate it and reach consonance. Second, when dissonance is present, a person will avoid situations and stimuli that would add to their distress. Dissonance arises everyday through interactions with other people and information constantly being exchanged. Co-ordinate to Festinger (1962), "Since a person does not have consummate and perfect control over the information that reaches him and over events that happen in his environs, such dissonances may easily ascend" (p. 4). How badly a person wants to go back to stability in their cognitions depends on the magnitude of the racket they are feeling. If an opinion or conclusion is fabricated, dissonance is typically created. Many of these situations cause only pocket-sized noise and about people tin go on with their days, just it is the situations where the inconsistency remains that motivate people to change cognitions and behaviors, or to add new behavior. It is clear now that when a person feels inconsistency they will most likely change either their beliefs or actions. For instance, if a young adult female is an active smoker and watches a commercial about the millions of deaths that are caused from lung cancer each year she will react in a item way. She might change her behaviors and quit smoking. Past quitting smoking she will render to consistency with the noesis that smoking is bad for y'all. Or this adult female can provide herself with new beliefs about smoking, by researching the positives of smoking and analyzing other habits that are much worse than hers. By doing this, her beliefs are now consequent with her smoking behavior. Finally, this woman tin can modify her perception of the human activity of smoking. To practise this, she could tell herself "Yep I smoke, but information technology calms my nerves and helps with my anxiety," or "Yes I smoke, just I do not smoke enough to become lung cancer; I exercise not have to worry about that". By doing this, she has inverse her perception of smoking and she will return to consonance. As stated earlier, people volition actively avoid an increase in dissonance equally a manner to maintain stability. While avoiding dissonance a person will look for other people or information that will support their preexisting beliefs rather than what is causing them to feel dissonance. Co-ordinate to Festinger (1962), "A person would expose himself to sources of information which he expected would add new elements which would increase consonance just would certainly avoid sources which would increase dissonance" (p. 30). Essentially, people will simply pay attention to the information or speak to people who back up what they already believe, and ignore any other facts that contradict this. When the cognitive dissonance theory was introduced to the psychology world, information technology caused a lot of theories to be reviewed especially the reinforcement theory. The reinforcement theory stated that a person eventually changes their behaviors through consistent reinforcement of positive or negative stimuli they are given immediately following a completed action. According to an in-depth review done past Elliot Aronson (1997), "Racket theory immune researchers to discover and specify some of reinforcement theory'due south limiting conditions and, on occasion, led us to the realization that, when information technology came to predicting man behavior, but hypotheses derived from reinforcement could be flat out wrong" (p. 129). The introduction of the cognitive dissonance theory shows that a person is much more complex than what the reinforcement theory portrayed, and people cannot simply alter beliefs or attitudes by existence positively reinforced. There is enough of research supporting the theory of cognitive noise in a variety of fields. Although it was first introduced through social psychology, cognitive dissonance is likewise seen in communications, marketing and even nursing. A case report done by Marcia Gruber was done in a clinic where the nurses did not become along with each other. Much of the staff and even patients complained almost the negativity and lack of cooperation betwixt the eight nurses who worked hither. The question related to cognitive dissonance that Gruber (2003) wanted to respond was, "Does recognition of mental attitude-beliefs inconsistency act every bit a motivator for alter in the workplace," (p. 243). Vi nurses participated in the study and completed a survey assessing the relationships among the nurses that was graded on a Likert scale. Following the survey, the nurse director and vice president interviewed each nurse. The interview started past request each nurse why they wanted to exist a nurse, and whether their job paralleled their personal values. So they were asked what their personal values were; many responses included compassion, caring, patient and many other things that would ameliorate depict what it means to be a nurse. Following this, the vice president so read off the list of complaints that each nurse had against them, and asked them if this matched the values and beliefs they had. Each nurse said their deportment stated in these complaints did non reflect what they said their beliefs and values were. A 2nd coming together was held that asked the nurses their opinions on the interview, and many of them said they had felt uncomfortable during it. The discomfort these nurses felt is a perfect example of cognitive noise. The nurses became enlightened of new information that contradicted a preexisting belief or behavior leading them to feel dissonance. Cognitive dissonance has been applied to a variety of fields, but in public relations it is extremely useful and must exist understood past any professional in this industry.

Application to Public Relations

Although it was first introduced through psychology, the theory of cerebral dissonance has become very important in the communications world. In public relations getting the audience to change their behaviors or attitudes is arguably the most of import office of the job. As a public relations person, it is his or her responsibility to provide the target audience with information. Often this information is contradicting to the person'south preconceived believes or behaviors. When this happens, the public relations person must provide the audition with enough persuasion to get them to do what they want them to. For example, if a public relations bureau is running a campaign targeting female women to purchase a certain brand of deodorant because information technology does not contain toxins that other brands do, many women will face cognitive dissonance from this. This will happen because for some women they employ or similar a different type of deodorant, or did not know that certain deodorants fifty-fifty had toxins in them. Some women might modify brands to become back to stability, and others might enquiry the brand they usually purchase to brand them experience improve virtually buying it. The task of the public relations person with this blazon of campaign is to change the behaviors and beliefs of these women and get them to purchase their deodorant over the ones they usually do. Another job of a public relations person is to sympathize their target audience completely. When running any type of campaign, a public relations person is trying to cause a alter in behavior, but earlier they can even do that they must know whom they are selling to. If a public relations person is practiced at their chore, and so they should be able to go their audience to cull their product over another one and will apply cerebral racket to do this. By providing the audition with persuasive and all-encompassing data that the public relations professional person researched in-depth, then the modify in beliefs should be like shooting fish in a barrel for whatever target audience they are selling to. The Gratuitous Killer Tan campaign done by the Mollie Biggane Fund used cognitive dissonance to become its audition to terminate using tanning beds. Mollie was a college sophomore that died from peel cancer at the age of xx, and this organization was created in memory of her. This campaign was done in New York Metropolis during the last week of November, when more people participate in tanning because of the cold weather. The people involved in the campaign stood on street corners handing out flyers promoting "free tans". A faux tanning salon was prepare up for the people who came to become their free tan. When they finished "tanning" however, they walked out to a funeral with their picture sitting on the coffin at the front of the room. These people were patently surprised and upset walking out to this. When the camera coiffure asked them how they felt seeing this, many of them said they felt horrible and would never tan once again. This footage is now a commercial that also visually shows the frightening statistics and firsthand dangers from using tanning beds. This campaign definitely makes people feel dissonance, peculiarly if they use tanning beds themselves. After these people walked out to a funeral that was supposed to be their ain, it is clear they all regretted going and many of them pledged to never tan again. Although this is a very morbid campaign, the use of cognitive noise is evident and the arrangement got the change in behavior and mental attitude that they wanted to.

Decision

Cognitive dissonance is when a person has two contradicting behavior leading them to become distressed and motivated to reach consonance again. In society to reach stability a person volition either alter their beliefs, behaviors or add new beliefs. According to cerebral dissonance, people will avoid anything that increases dissonance for them. People are near comfy at a stable state and anything that disrupts this causes a great deal of stress, so avoidance or changes are made to get back to consonance. Although cognitive dissonance was first introduced through psychology, information technology has a big impact in public relations. One of the most of import parts of working in public relations is beingness able to change an audience's beliefs and behaviors, which goes manus-in-hand with cognitive noise. Public relations experts face up challenges with persuading an audience to do or feel things, so it is essential for them to accept a grasp on cerebral dissonance in order to exist successful in this industry.

References

Aronson, Eastward. (1997). Back to the hereafter: Retrospective review of leon festinger's–A theory of cognitive racket. The American Journal of Psychology, 110(1), 127-137. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/224840246?accountid=13158

Festinger, L. (1962). Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.

Gruber, M. (2003). Cerebral noise theory and motivation for change: A case study. Gastroenterology Nursing, 26(6), 242-245. doi:ten.1097/00001610-200311000-00005

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Source: https://sites.psu.edu/eganser/the-cognitive-dissonance-theory-and-its-function-in-public-relations/

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