For example, if Simon thinks he is an animal lover, and then kicks a cat in the street for getting in his

way, there will

be a huge level of tension in his mind. To reduce this, the mind will change his beliefs and attitude, or blame, deny or
justify:

 Fred works in an office. After work, he decides to steal a few office supplies. Even though he knows it’s
wrong, and he could get in trouble, he decides he deserves them for the ‘hard work’ he’s been putting in recently.
The company doesn’t pay him enough anyway, it’s just a little extra on the side… right?
 Kate slaved her entire two years at college to get good grades, and to her delight, she got five A’s! She
applied for the top five Universities in the country, and eventually decided to go to Oxford. When she got
there, she found the University was actually pretty average*, and wasn’t exactly as great as she expected.
To solve the dissonance between the huge effort to go there, and the reality that the University is pretty
average, she convinces herself that Oxford is the most fantastic place ever.
 Mamma Smith is having a nice mooch in Sainsbury’s, when she sees a bunch of grapes. She samples one.
Even though this is actually stealing, and she knows it’s wrong, she was just making sure they were tasty –
wouldn’t it be a waste of money if they were sour or nasty!
 At work, James isn’t monitored very often. Every time he takes his one hour break, he actually goes for an
hour and a half. Rather than believe he’s stealing (getting paid for time he isn’t working), he justifies it by
saying he’s overworked and deserves the extra time off.
 Sarah just bought a new car. Admittedly, she spent much more money than she should have and feels
regretful and actually a little embarrassed as well (buyer’s remorse). Rather than continue feeling these
undesirable emotions, she decides that the car is less likely to break down than her older one, and will
actually save her loads of cash in the long run. Besides, the car is much more attractive so people will like
her more – maybe she’ll even make them jealous!
 Gilbert is a healthy body builder. In one day, he ends up eating a fast food meal for lunch, then a take away
on the night. He knows he’s healthy, but the unhealthy behaviour causes dissonance. He decides that he’ll
just burn off the extra calories anyway, as he exercises for an hour every day. Anyway, he had a small
breakfast so needs to ‘make up for it’.
 Laura really values a man with a good sense of humour. When she first met her boyfriend Adam, he seemed
funny – but actually he’s really boring. Rather than feel dissonance, she decides to leave him for a funnier
man.

Reducing Dissonance.
There are three ways to reduce dissonance, as defined by Festinger (1956):

1. Altering the importance/value of of the conflicting belief.

2. Emphasise a new belief that supports your behaviour.
3. Changing your behaviour all together.

Belief: Stealing is illegal and immoral, and I’m an honest person.

Behaviour: Stealing office supplies.

1. Alter the importance/value of the belief: “Stealing isn’t really that bad”.
2. Emphasise a new belief that supports her new behaviour: “Everyone else does it, I’m not the only one”; “I
deserve a little more for my hard work”; “These particular supplies are never used anyway, so they’ll go to
waste if I leave them here!”
3. Change the behaviour all together: “I will not steal these supplies.”