Toward an increased understanding of dissonance processes : a response to the target article by Kruglanski et al.

We appreciate this opportunity to respond to the target article by Kruglanski and colleagues, which raises some important issues concerning cognitive dissonance theory. Before addressing the specific points made in the target article, we must first explain our theoretical perspective and clarify some definitions. We take the perspective of Festinger’s (1957) original theory of cognitive dissonance, along with its extension, the action-based model (E. Harmon-Jones, Amodio, & Harmon-Jones, 2009; E. Harmon-Jones, Harmon-Jones, & Levy, 2015).