GS4 · 10 marks · 150 words

What do you understand by cognitive dissonance? Giving examples, discuss how it influences one's behavior and attitude.

Answered by 6 toppers · CSE 2018–2019

AttitudeSocial Influence and Persuasion

Syllabus: Attitude: content, structure, function; its influence and relation with thought and behaviour; moral and political attitudes; social influence and persuasion.

How toppers approached it

From all 6 answers · about 170 words.

Opening

  • A definition67%
  • No separate opening33%

Body

  • Points50%
  • Points and prose33%
  • Continuous prose17%

Close

  • No separate close67%
  • A summary17%
  • A way forward17%

The toppers’ answers

Kanishak KatariaAIR 1 · CSE 2018 · 168 wordsTheir whole copy

Opening

Human Behavior & Attitude is composed of 3 elements:

3 elements

Body · points and prose

-> Emotions towards an object -> Belief towards an idea -> Action undertaken by

Close

an individual as per the environment

Cognitive Dissonance is the situation when what the humanbeing thinks, feels or acts are not in syne with each other. It leads to a situation to turmoil in the mind & is followed by responses which help keep this dissonance away.

If the attitude is strong, then it may lead to a change in Behavior.

If the behavior is stronger & unavoidable than the moral attitude, inevitably undergoes a change.

The dissonance & amount of time taken to respond are dependent on how strongly the attitude is linked to the behaviours.

eg. (i) an individual might hate smoking but in the peer group the pressure he may have to smoke. If the desire to not smoke is not strong, then the attitude goes a change, after some amount of dissonance & person may justify smoking.

More on Attitude

Content, structure and function of attitude, its influence on thought and behaviour, how attitudes form and change, and moral and political attitudes.

All GS4 questions on Attitude