The Cognitive Dissonance Theory by John L. Cotton

1500 Words3 Pages

The Cognitive Dissonance Theory by John L. Cotton

When I hear Cognitive Dissonance, I say to myself, "Cogna Who?" I could barely say the word let alone be able to explain the theory to someone else who has never heard of it. So I took it upon myself to get schooled up on the Cognitive Dissonance Theory. Doing this was no barrel of laughs. But one night while I was sitting by the fire having some wine and cheese I was reading Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, there was an article by John L. Cotton that explained the Cognitive Dissonance Theory. To my surprise the article which was named "Cognitive Dissonance in Selective Exposure." After reading the article several times so that I would not miss a single bit of information, I think I have a clear understanding of Cognitive Dissonance. Now for all that know me, I would never keep this information to myself, but I am going to share Cognitive Dissonance with all you web surfers out there. Are you ready? Well, ready or not get ready to set sail and ride into the world of Cognitive Dissonance!

Research

Probably the best quote that Cotton gave was that everyone "selectively seek, choose, and screen the information that we use." How true is this in your day to day lives? Think about it, we are constantly making decisions that we think that are beneficial to us and the people around us. For instance, if all of the boys want to got to the bar and have a few smoothies, you are more inclined to go along with everyone else because you do not want to ruffle anyone's feathers. Let us dig a little deeper into this theory and break it down. First off, what is cognition? I was not too sure either until the article explained what cognition was. Cognitions are "attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge about one's behavior, or any other knowledge about oneself or the environment." So basically all of our actions and feelings that we have are cognitions. Understand the cognitive part of it a little better? Do not worry we will be back to explain this further. How about we tackle the dissonance part of this theory and see where we can go with it. Dissonance is the concept that when a person becomes "aware that two or more of these cognition's are contradictory, dissonance is created.

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