The Role Of Cognitive Dissonance

Leon Festinger states that cognitive dissonance is the discomfort people feel when two cognitions such as beliefs, attitudes, or their behavior conflict with their conception of themselves. When dissonance arises people deal with it by changing the behavior, changing the thought, or adding a thought (Aronson, Wilson, Akert, & Sommers, 2017). Cognitive dissonance is supported on a neurological level. However, arises and is treated differently depending on the culture. We will venture into how cognitive dissonance is dealt with across cultures through post-choice dissonance, individual vs. vicarious dissonance and the relation of internal and external attribution with cognitive dissonance.

Perhaps the most notable demonstration of cultural variation,

In order to thoroughly understand the effect that culture has on it we will need to understand internal and external attribution. Internal attribution is when the behavior is attributed to the individual. While external attribution is when the behavior is attributed to factors outside of the individuals control. Hazel Markus and her colleagues (2006) coded Japanese and American media accounts for their description of gold medal winners. American media, an individualistic society, attributed the success to internal attributes such as their unique talents and abilities. While Japanese media, a collectivist society, included the internal attributions such as their talent but also the external support (attribution) of their coaches’ teammates and family. These examples are the positive side of the coin, failure and the cognitive dissonance that arises from it is treated differently by the culture. In order to keep a high self-esteem and reduce cognitive dissonance, failure in individualist cultures is attributed to external causes. While in collectivistic cultures people experience cognitive dissonance, on a personal level, since they make internal

What may be considered as the “right path” in one culture may cause cognitive dissonance in another culture. People all across the world have self-esteem and experience cognitive dissonance. However, the values that are aligned with self-esteem vary greatly depending on cultural values, though the development of the self-concept. While these aspects help the individual deal with many aspect of life, these same values also help to shape their perspective and take on their mortality. These cultural differences still continue to into the cognitive dissonance that arises from individuals. We learned how post choice dissonance is more prevalent in individualistic culture. Cognitive dissonance can be vicariously experience more commonly in collectivistic cultures. Lastly the pertaining roles that cognitive dissonance has on impression management. Decisions are not just a matter of choosing between black and white, but instead is a complex decision that has many factors that are attributed to the culture that the individual identifies with, their self-concept and thereby their