- Find positive qualities in the person and focus on those to reduce dissonance between our negative attitude and positive cognition. For example, acknowledging their kindness or work ethic. - Interact with the person in cooperative ways to experience dissonance from our negative attitude and cooperative behavior. Our attitude may then shift to align with the cooperative behavior. - Seek to understand the person's perspective through listening to reduce dissonance between an overly negative view of them and understanding their experiences shape them. Greater understanding can lead to more positive attitudes. - Spend time with the

1. How opinionated are you?
Leon Festinger 1985

2. Cognitive Dissonance
Introduction
DEFINITION: Cognitive Dissonance is altering attitude to create
harmony.
AIM: You will learn from the cognitive dissonance of Festinger, why you
simultaneously think two cognitions discomforts and motivates you to
change.
Background of Theory: After the earthquake of 1934 in India,
people were very afraid of what was happening. Rumors went around
saying that there will be more earthquakes with even great catastrophe.
Festinger wondered why people were spreading such news. Then, he
realized that these people were making these rumors based on how they
were feeling and behaving and not trying to increase their anxiety.

3. Agenda
Theoretical Propositions
Method
Results
Discussion
Questions and Criticism
Recent Application

4. Comic
Q: Have you ever been in a position of having to do or say something that
was opposite of your attitudes or opinions?

5. Overview and Opening
When behavior is opposite your attitude, your attitude will change to
meet the behavior. The study was done with giving rewards for the
speeches opposite their views. It was expected the greater the reward
the greater chance the person would change his/her views. ( Very
simple?!) However, just the opposite was found to be true. The great
the reward the less likely the person was to change his/her personal
views.
* For Example: if a person is forced to deliver a speech opposite what he or she believes, the
speakers attitudes will shift toward those given in a speech.
Reasons:
Speaker is mentally preparing the speech
Part of the process of preparing the speech is to think of ways to support the argument in
support of the forced position

6. Theoretical Propositions
Think privately x + Publicly state not x =
Cognition Dissonance.
If reasons for stating not x than less dissonance. (like
Pressure, reward, and punishment.
(For example: the speech...)
Q: Suppose someone offers you a great deal of money to speak
about something you disagree with, in public, and you agree. Then,
someone offers you a little money and you agree. Which situation
would the dissonance be greater and why?
Therefore: According to Festinger- the greater the reward the less

7. Method
There were college students asked to do a
very boring experiment. After the
experiment, 10 students got $1 and 10
students got $20 to lie that the experiment
was very enjoyable, intriguing, and fun.

8. Results
The students were interviewed how they
really felt about the experiment on a scale
from -5 through +5.
They were asked to rate: interesting or
enjoyable, how much they learned,
importance, and interest to repeat similar
experiments.
Results: students that were paid $1 liked the
experiment more than those paid $20. This
addresses Festinger’s theory.

9. Questions and Criticism
He anticipated criticism from other researchers. There for he recorded the dollar
experiment and used people who did not know which condition they were rating.
Over the years the theory was only refined and not rejected, but widely accepted. Cooper
and Fazio outlined 4 steps in order for the attitude to change.
1: The attitude must produce a negative consequences. For example, if you compliment
someone on their clothes, even though you hate it, you still probably won’t change your
attitude about the clothes.
2: If you choose to behave in a negative way then you will feel responsible and have
dissonance. If someone forces you to behave in a negative way you will not have
dissonance.
3: Not only is it discomfort like Festinger said, but it also has to effect the person
psychologically.
4: The person must be aware that he is behaving in a certain way for this dissonance to
happen. Like the students knew they were lying.

10. Recent Applications
Theory applied to speeches, drugs, and sexual behavior.

11. When you actively try to change your views and cognitive dissonance, by changing our behavior,
this will change your opinions and attitudes.
How can we change our attitude toward a person we don’t like?