Cognitive Consistency in Purchase Behaviour: Theoretical & Empirical Analyses

Abstract

The fundamental thrust of consistency theories is to enforce equilibrium among one's cognitions. Man seeks haemostatic states among his cognitive elements or avoids conflicting stimuli. He loves the familiar; the unfamiliar is always discomforting and disturbing though common knowledge tells us that actual behaviour turns what seems novel at the pre-decision stage into familiar following series of learning and experience. The Heider's balance theory, Osgood's congruity model and Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory are the three popular schools of thought that provide the foundational theories of cognitive consistency This paper critically analyzed and synthesized the major theoretical and empirical body of knowledge of these schools with a view to proffering a tripartite approach (involving the consumers, the organizations and the governments) to solving inconsistency among cognitive elements (e.g.; values, beliefs, knowledge and attitudes). These schools were specifically looked into and assessed in terms of their individual real world application and/or empirical fertility. Each represents an improvement upon the other with Festinger's theory providing the most elaborate perspective of emphasizing on psychological tension and means of achieving consistency within and between the cognitive system and ultimately overt and covert behaviours.

Planned Behavior in Overcoming Cognitive Dissonance in Ritual Activities of Homecoming (Case Study of Homecoming Travelers Using Motorcycle)

“…When a dissonance is present, in addition to trying to reduce it, the person will actively avoid situations and information that is likely to increase the the research above, that Festinger [6] has reviewed how to eliminate dissonance that is felt by a person, but the discussion carried out by ] still looks general and requires deeper exploration, so that further research reveal more about the efforts made by a person to reduce feelings of dissonance in various fields of study and with Research on efforts to reduce dissonance, among others, was revealed in the results of Hutagalung's [7] research that for informants who did not experience Dissonance, the form of the communication process was in the form of action not to make any changes to one of the elements of dissonance, such as changing beliefs / beliefs or changing actions. Awa [10], reviewing every individual who finds himself experiencing dissonance, will try to reduce the dissonance in various ways. Hazan and Nasreen [11] review that in the world of marketing, consumers can try various ways to reduce dissonance when deciding to purchase a product.…”

Loving “Mapple Store” but Hating “Sprawl-Mart”: A Case Study of Brand Parodies in The Simpsons

“…These three components are described in literature as, "interrelated, mutually influential and mutually consistent" (Lantos, 2010, p. 504), because consumers need to achieve cognitive consistency (Lantos, 2010). The critical aspect of cognitive consistency is described as, "the valence of the attitude (both direction and strength)," which is, "congruent with the individual's perception of the object-goal relationships" (Awa & Nwuche, 2010;Scott, 1959, p. 220). For example, if a person values a good working environment, and sees that Wal-Mart provides a terrible working environment, then the individual should dislike Wal-Mart.…”

“…Consumers tend to maintain such "intra-attitude consistency" because without consistency, cognitive dissonance appears (Awa & Nwuche, 2010;Lantos, 2010). For consumers, cognitive dissonance is a state of psychological tension and discomfort caused by the inconsistency among "beliefs, feelings and/or actions" (Lantos, 2010, p. 504).…”

“…Therefore, audiences' prior brand attitudes play an important role in their attitudes toward fictional brands in The Simpsons. Such prior brand attitude cannot be easily changed because it is formed by brand beliefs, feelings, and actual purchase experience (Awa & Nwuche, 2010). Based on information processing and persuasion theory, when encountering a new message, individuals tend to retrieve prior knowledge and experiences from their memory.…”

Complaint Behaviour between Generations and Its Transmissions: An Exploratory Study in Malaysia

“…Theory of cognitive dissonance is often used to explain how dissatisfaction would lead to high dissonance and the subsequent actions to eliminate it (Thomas, 2010). It elucidates a state of imbalance between one's cognition that results from the contradictory messages, objects, events or experiences (Awa & Nwuche, 2010). In marketing literature, it happens when the products purchased and used do not meet the expectations (Salzberger & Koller, 2010).…”