ABSTRACT
There are three broad classes of behaviors that can result from the prior arousal of dissonance. The first of these consists of those responses that mirror the presence of cognitive dissonance, such as the recall of discrepant information and regret discussed in Chapter 8. The second is the active attempt to cope with dissonance, consisting of adding consonant cognitions or subtracting dissonant cognitions. Finally, independent of these first two, there are behaviors carried out in the interest of dissonance avoidance. Such behaviors might be directed either at taking the person's conscious attention off the dissonant relations, or alternatively, off the circumstances that prompt him to think of the dissonant relations. This chapter focuses on the last two, and has been written in an effort to capture the variety of circumstances that lead to the many forms of dissonance reduction and avoidance.
