COGNITIVE DISSONANCE CAN MOTIVATE
and challenge learners to think critically about their beliefs and cognitions, thereby enabling learning. This article will describe the theory and its implications for instructional designers.

This theory, first developed by social psychologist Leon Festinger, states that a learner will tend to seek consonance between cognitions. When this consonance is challenged by a new and incongruent cognition, the learner will experience a state of tension. This unpleasant state impels the learner to reduce or eliminate the dissonance.
A person has a multitude of cognitions, most of which are either unrelated to one another, or fit together in some fashion. A person can know that "It takes ten minutes to get to work each day" and "I like bananas." These cognitions are neither consonant or dissonant, and they coexist in the brain with no relationship. However, when a new cognition challenges a previously existing one, the two cognitions can not "peacefully" coexist in the brain. Dissonance results from the incongruous cognitions. 
Consider the following example

The Earth is flat. Or is it round? This cognitive dissonance causes a state of tension for the learner.

hristopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan challenged the conventional wisdom of the day by stating that the earth was round, not flat, this led to widespread cognitive dissonance.
The more entrenched a particular cognition or belief (I am 100% sure the Earth is round!), the greater the dissonance when an alternative view is presented.

Festinger compared the need for consonance with biological urges, such as the need to satisfy hunger. A person is driven to satisfy that urge. Because dissonance is an unnatural or unpleasant state (similar to hunger), learners will use a variety of methods to reduce or eliminate dissonance when it occurs. 

• Reject the new cognition
• The Earth can't possibly be round, because I know it's flat.
• Reduce the importance of the dissonant cognitions
• I'll never venture beyond the town where I live, so it does not matter if the Earth is flat or round.
• Add new cognitions
• The Earth casts a round shadow on the moon, so it is possible the Earth is round.
• Change the dissonant beliefs so they are no longer inconsistent
• Magellan circumnavigated the Earth, so it can not be flat.
• Change the behavior to reflect the cognition
• I will sail around the Earth.
  

In the first two options, while the dissonance may be reduced, real learning, or an attitude change does not occur. In the remaining options, learning can occur. The learner evaluates the new knowledge and adopts the new cognition, while rejecting the old information.
A key component in reducing cognitive dissonance was demonstrated by the experiments of Festinger. He discovered that, after generating cognitive dissonance in his subjects, providing a small incentive led to adoption of the new cognition. Contrary to what might be expected, larger incentives did not result in adoption of the new cognition. A large incentive caused the subjects to change a behavior, but not the underlying cognition. These subjects were able to act in a manner that was contrary to their cognitions, because the incentive was large enough to justify the contradiction. 

Cognitive dissonance can be a powerful catalyst to elicit change in a learner's thoughts or attitudes. Creating cognitive dissonance, where previously only consonance existed, provides a valuable instructional opportunity.
According to Kamradt and Kamradt (Kamradt and Kamradt, 1999) activating cognitive dissonance can be extremely helpful in instruction designed to change attitudes. Once the dissonance is established, the instructor can then address the different components of the attitude: affective, cognitive, and behavioral. Rather than attempting a radical change in attitude all at once, the learner can be nudged, in stages, to accept intermediate attitudes, with the ultimate goal of eventually accepting the target attitude.

Karen Smith
San Diego State University