<P> As such, the experimental subjects of the Festinger and Carlsmith study (Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance, 1959) inferred their mental attitudes from their own behaviour . When the subject - participants were asked: "Did you find the task interesting?", the participants decided that they must have found the task interesting, because that is what they told the questioner . Their replies suggested that the participants who were paid twenty dollars had an external incentive to adopt that positive attitude, and likely perceived the twenty dollars as the reason for saying the task was interesting, rather than saying the task actually was interesting . </P> <P> The theory of self - perception (Bem) and the theory of cognitive dissonance (Festinger) make identical predictions, but only the theory of cognitive dissonance predicts the presence of unpleasant arousal, of psychological distress, which were verified in laboratory experiments . </P> <P> In The Theory of Cognitive Dissonance: A Current Perspective (1969), Elliot Aronson linked cognitive dissonance to the self - concept: That mental stress arises when the conflicts among cognitions threatens the person's positive self - image . This reinterpretation of the original Festinger and Carlsmith study, using the induced - compliance paradigm, proposed that the dissonance was between the cognitions "I am an honest person ." and "I lied about finding the task interesting ." </P> <P> The study Cognitive Dissonance: Private Ratiocination or Public Spectacle? (1971) reported that maintaining cognitive consistency, rather than protecting a private self - concept, is how a person protects his or her public self - image . Moreover, the results reported in the study I'm No Longer Torn After Choice: How Explicit Choices Implicitly Shape Preferences of Odors (2010) contradict such an explanation, by showing the occurrence of revaluation of material items, after the person chose and decided, even after having forgotten the choice . </P>

The cognitive dissonance theory proposed that the desire to reduce dissonance is determined by