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Table 9.1 Four examples of cognitive dissonance mechanisms, with hypothetical
examples of resident beliefs. In Case A, the person is assumed to believe that there is
no influenza epidemic, although he is confronted with news reports about the rising num­
ber of cases. In Case B, the person is assumed to believe that the world’s oil reserves will
last indefinitely, although he is confronted with reports about dwindling supplies.

Dissonance Case A: influenza epidemic Case B: oil reserves
reduction
mechanism

Discredit the “news media are whipping “news reports are distorted by
source up hysteria to have pressure from environmentalist
something to write about.” fanatics.”
Bolster the “i’ve talked to several “Prospectors are investing in new
resident belief doctors and they don’t see surveys, so they think there are
increasing numbers of cases reserves to be found, and they are
in their waiting rooms.” the experts.”
Make an “The cases are increasing in “oil fields in the Middle east are
exception poverty-stricken areas, but running out, but not oil fields in
not elsewhere.” the rest of the world.”
introduce a “Flu symptoms are similar to “Pumping oil temporarily lowers the
mediating allergy symptoms, and the level in a well; if the well is left idle
assumption latter always rise this time for a while, the level is restored; so
of the year; so it appears oil reserves appear lower than they
that there are more flu really are.”
cases than there really are.”

Different ways of creating the mediating belief B′ produce different variants of
this mechanism. Festinger outlined two variants that he called denial and bol­
stering; because the term “denial” is used in different ways by different theorists
in this area, i use the more specific term “discredit the source.” in addition,
one can extract from Festinger’s writings two others mechanisms that i will
call differentiation and mediation; the last is identical to what science- inspired
cognitive scientists call abduction. Brief summaries suffice to illustrate the
idea that contradictions can be resolved without core change by adding new
beliefs, if those beliefs are chosen in particular ways. see Table 9.1 for didactic
examples.

Discredit the source
The simplest way to reduce dissonance is to form new, negative beliefs about the
source (as opposed to the content) of the anomalous information. The crud-
est response is to decide that the source is dishonest. For example, a person