A Theory Of: Cognitive Dissonance

Festinger saw a unique opportunity to test a growing hunch. What happens to a person’s mind when their deeply held conviction is proven—irrefutably—to be wrong? He went undercover. The Midnight Crisis

In 1954, Leon Festinger , a social psychologist, found himself fascinated by a bizarre newspaper headline about a cult called the Seekers. Led by a woman named Dorothy Martin, they believed that on December 21, the world would be destroyed by a great flood, and they alone would be rescued by a flying saucer from the planet Clarion. A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance

To stop the pain of that inconsistency, we must change something. We can: Leave the cult (the rarest path). Change the belief: "The prophecy was wrong." Add new cognitions: "We saved the world with our faith". The peg-turning experiment Festinger saw a unique opportunity to test a growing hunch