Teaching cognitive dissonance theory: Practical advice for the classroom.

Overview & Synopsis

Cognitive dissonance is an essential theory in psychology. However, communicating its importance to students can be challenging. To address this, the sparse empirical literature suggests the use of lively in-class experiences and worked examples as alternatives to traditional teaching methods. The authors have adapted these ideas and developed recommendations and materials for use in the classroom. The three recommendations are to use common language, highlight the functionality of dissonance motivation, and to rely on real-life examples. These recommendations inform two novel exercises, which use problem-based learning (PBL) in student teams. After an initial naïve discussion of scenarios, Festinger’s original conception, Aronson’s self-related dissonance, and Harmon-Jones’s action-based model are introduced and used as templates for further analysis. The exercises are informed by the literature on cognitive dissonance theory and our experiences teaching this topic and are offered as pedagogical primes ready for empirical testing.