cognative dissonance

“Your best friend is having a beer bash tonight. Everyone you talk to indicated his or her positive intentions of going to the best beer bash of the millennium. However, you have a Psyc 101 final next morning that you haven't studied for. Your midterm scores have been low going into the final, but everyone claims that the final is easy every semester. Should you stay home and study for the final or go to this …

…the inconsistent cognitions (O’Keefe, 1990). Also, it may be advantageous to alter the importance of the various cognitions to reduce the level of dissonance, since the discrepant and consonant cognitions must be weighed by importance. References Berkowitz, L. & Cotton, J. (1984). Cognitive Dissonance in Selective Exposure. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. O’Keefe, Daniel J. (1990). Persuasion: Theory and Research. Newbury Park, California: Sage Press. Festinger, L. (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.