Final answer:
Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance describes the psychological discomfort from inconsistency in our beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors with our positive self-image. Festinger and Carlsmith's experiment showed that participants paid less to lie about enjoying a boring task actually experienced greater enjoyment, which was attributed to cognitive dissonance.
Step-by-step explanation:
Psychologist Leon Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance suggests that there is a psychological discomfort that arises when our behaviors, attitudes, or beliefs are inconsistent with our positive self-image. Festinger and James Carlsmith conducted an experiment in 1959 which yielded seminal findings about dissonance. They asked participants to perform a tedious task and later paid some of them to lie and tell the next participant that the task was enjoyable. They found that the participants who were paid a smaller amount to lie reported greater enjoyment of the task than those who were paid more. This counterintuitive result was explained by cognitive dissonance: those paid less couldn't justify the lie with the reward, so they adjusted their attitudes about the task to reduce the dissonance.
Later studies confirmed that cognitive dissonance not only causes psychological discomfort but can also lead to physiological arousal and activate brain regions associated with emotions and cognitive functioning. People are motivated to reduce cognitive dissonance because it is uncomfortable on multiple levels.
An individual might resolve cognitive dissonance by changing either their behaviors or beliefs to reduce the inconsistency. An example of this could be a smoker who believes smoking is harmful, but continues to smoke. They might quit smoking to align their behavior with their beliefs or justify their behavior by downplaying the health risks associated with smoking.