It’s about that time again: to get my dog groomed.
Rosie’s fur isn’t that bad, but Romeo’s full husky coat, forget about it, it is
like a fur-ball blizzard in my house. As I watch the fur tumbleweeds pass
across my living room floor I think to myself, “Is he already shedding his coat
again?” I look at him, and he looks at me, I pet him, and as I pull my hand
away so does some more fur. Even though I know he is shedding again and I absolutely
hate the fur around the house and on my clothes, I didn’t call the groomer’s to
set him up an appointment. I feel really bad about it, and I have almost an
anxious feeling in my gut because I know it needs to be done, yet I have not
called. This is something in class we learned known as the cognitive dissonance theory. According to Leon Festinger (1957) we
like to maintain consistency between our behaviors and our attitude, and in
order to reduce any inconsistencies we have, we follow through with one of five
techniques, 1) we begin to make ourselves believe we had no choice but to
follow through with this behavior. 2) we take away the importance of the behavior,
3) we add more cognitions, 4) we change your views of our behavior, and usually
the easiest 5) we change our attitudes of the behavior (McKimmie et al., 2003).
Of course for my case, I followed through with changing my attitude of the behavior.
Although he is obviously shedding, as there is hair on the floor and on my
clothes, but I don’t think his shedding is THAT bad right now to pay to get him
groomed. I can just brush him myself at a later time.
Leon Festinger’s
cognitive dissonance theory is
something we will battle unknowingly many times throughout our lives, and it
has been redesigned into Joel Cooper and Russell Fazio’s (1984) four necessary
conditions for the reduction and arousal of dissonance. According to the new
model, after the behavior has been completed (not getting my dog groomed), the
first step to reduce dissonance is the production of a negative consequence. In
my case, this would be that there is still dog hair in my house and on my clothes.
The next step is the feeling of personal responsibility of these negative
consequences by partaking in the behavior. For me, this would be the guilt I
hold for letting him continue to shed, especially since it might make him uncomfortable.
The third step steps into the realm of physiological arousal, which for me, is
that bad feeling I have in my gut and the stress I have for not having him
groomed. The fourth and final step is the attribution that is made towards that
arousal because of the behavior. For my example, my last step is realizing that
I feel this guilt and stress because of my behavior of not having my dog
groomed. Cooper and Fazio’s model really puts it into perspective how we
process our dissonance, and how the
reduction of this dissonance is necessary to maintain consistency. I'm sure at this point, my dog and my floors are hoping this dissonance thing goes away soon, and that I just change my behavior instead.
Until Next blog,
Your social psychista
Word count: 527
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University
Press.
McKimmie, B. M., Terry, D. J., Hogg, M. A., Manstead,
A. S. R., Spears, R., & Doosje, B. (2003) I’m a hypocrite, but so is
everyone else: Group support and the reduction of cognitive dissonance. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and
Practice, 7, 214-224.
Cooper, J., & Fazio, R. H. (1984). A new look at
dissonance theory. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.) Advances
in experimental social psychology (Vol. 17, pp. 229-267). New York:
Academic Press.
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