Cognitive dissonance Author: Elena Pasquinelli [INSTNICOD] Contributors: none Current version (on 2006-01-23) Conflicts can be experienced at different levels that influence the believability and performances of mediated experiences. Perceptual conflicts are especially relevant for multimodal and enactive interfaces, but cognitive issues and conflicts are not excluded by these forms of experiences. It is important that, as in the case of perceptual conflicts, spontaneous solutions to cognitive conflicts go in the direction of re-establishing coherence and of preserving expectations. This general indication is especially significant for the proposition of believable experiences because the frustration of expectations, at the cognitive or perceptual level, and the violation of coherence negatively affect the believability of new experiences. A specific theory has been advanced by [Festinger, 1957] for explaining the fact that the existence of a dissonance or inconsistency between beliefs or other mental states is resented as negative by the subject. [Festinger, 1957] proposes that cognitive dissonance is a psychological tension similar to hunger and thirst and that for this reason people will seek to resolve this tension. The solution consists in changing the beliefs and other mental states in order to reduce the dissonance and re-establish the balance between the cognitions. According to the theory of cognitive dissonance, the human mind thus tends to adopt thoughts or beliefs so as to minimise the amount of dissonance (conflict) between cognitions. In other words, subjects are assumed to seek consistency among their beliefs and other mental states. Two factors in particular are described that affect the strength of the dissonance: the number of dissonant beliefs, and the importance attached to each belief. Dissonance occurs when the subject must choose between incompatible beliefs and when the alternatives are all attractive. The reduction of cognitive dissonance is operated through different strategies: the reduction of the importance of the dissonant beliefs, the addition of more consonant beliefs that
outweigh the dissonant beliefs and, finally, the operation of changes in the dissonant beliefs so that they are no longer inconsistent. A comparison between cognitive and perceptual conflicts should ascertain whether analogous mechanisms are activated in presence of conflicts and whether analogous solutions are put in action. The psychological effect of the reduction of cognitive dissonance is the reduction of the tension. But the modification of dissonant beliefs might involve a distortion of the truth and cause wrong decisions. This is true for perceptual conflicts too, where mid-way solutions can be described that do not correspond to the features of none of the involved partial stimuli, with consequents errors and nonadaptive responses [Stein & Meredith, 1993]. However, both in the case of perceptual and cognitive conflicts, the fact of finding a unitary, coherent solution seems to be more important than respecting the truth of the source of information, and producing a response seems to be more important than producing the right one (the behavioural effect of a non-solved state of conflict being a paralysis of action [Stein é Meredith, 1993]).
References: Festinger, L. (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Dissonance.
Stein, B. E., & Meredith, M. E. (1993). The merging of the senses. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Related items: Coherence (of perceptual experience) Perceptual conflicts
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