ABSTRACT
As set forth by Festinger (1957) dissonance theory sounded much like a model of consciously mediated cognitive activity. The person becomes aware of a contradiction between sets of cognitions, then proceeds to reconcile the contradiction. At least it is easy to infer such conclusions from the original statement of the theory. Although Festinger (1957) was not totally explicit on the issue of whether consciousness is necessary, he took a more definite position in 1964 in the context of discussing postdecision regret. At this writing he indicated that a person would be likely to focus attention on dissonance immediately after behavioral commitment. More important, Festinger suggested that the purpose of such focused attention would be that of reducing dissonance. He questioned that there could be any route to dissonance reduction other than focusing on and directly dealing with dissonant relations.
