ABSTRACT
Dissonance is a very powerful motivator which will often lead us to change one or other of conflicting beliefs or actions. The discomfort often feels like a tension between the two opposing thoughts. It is most powerful when it is about our self-image. For example, if I believe I am good but find myself doing something bad. To release the tension we must either
change our behaviour
orchange our beliefs.
In one of those rather dodgy psychology experiments (like most of them conducted at Stanford University, this one way back in 1959), students were obliged to perform repetitive and dull tasks such as turning pegs in holes at certain times and taking spools on and off trays.