Simple Expectancy Violations Lead to Negative Affect: Tests of Dissonance Theory

Abstract

Leon Festinger described cognitive dissonance broadly as psychological discomfort resulting from a cognitive inconsistency. Revisions to the theory have narrowed the interpretation, research focus, and application of this idea. However, dissonance processes can be applied broadly, and could inform literatures describing other reactions to inconsistencies. The present studies aimed to demonstrate dissonance effects with simple inconsistencies, test predictions of the action-based model of dissonance, and link to other reactions to inconsistency/uncertainty. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated more negative affect in response to sentences with incongruent endings than sentences with congruent endings, supporting the idea dissonance can be applied to simple inconsistencies. Studies 3 and 4 used these simple sentence stimuli to test predictions of the action-based model of dissonance but results were uninformative. Studies 5 and 6 examined correlations between the effects of sentence incongruence and interpretations of surprised faces. Results provided some weak support for the idea dissonance can be understood in the same terms as other reactions to inconsistencies. Together these results support models of dissonance that posit that dissonance relies on reactions to inconsistencies themselves and can be applied more broadly than revisions suggest.