ISSUE 4. Does Cognitive Dissonance Explain Why Behavior Can Change Attitudes?
YES: LEON FESTINGER AND JAMES M. CARLSMITH, FROM “COGNITIVE CONSEQUENCES OF FORCED COMPLIANCE,” THE JOURNAL OF ABNORMAL AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (VOL. 58, 1959)
NO: DARYL J. BEM, FROM “SELF-PERCEPTION: AN ALTERNATIVE INTERPRETATION OF COGNITIVE DISSONANCE PHENOMENA,” PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW (VOL. 57, 1967)
Social psychologists Leon Festinger and James M. Carlsmith propose their theory of cognitive dissonance to explain why peoples attitudes may change after they have acted in a way that is inconsistent with their true attitudes. Social psychologist Daryl J. Bem proposes a theory of self-perception, which he believes can explain Festinger and Carlsmiths results better than cognitive dissonance theory.