Editing Cognitive dissonance (section)

===Action–motivation model===
Festinger's original theory did not seek to explain how dissonance works. Why is inconsistency so aversive?<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Harmon-Jones E, Harmon-Jones C |title=Cognitive Dissonance Theory After 50 Years of Development |journal=Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie |date=January 2007 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=7–16 |doi=10.1024/0044-3514.38.1.7 |citeseerx=10.1.1.569.8667 }}</ref>  The action–motivation model seeks to answer this question. It proposes that inconsistencies in a person's cognition cause mental stress because psychological inconsistency interferes with the person's functioning in the [[Reality|real world]]. Among techniques for coping, the person may choose to exercise a behavior that is inconsistent with their current attitude (a belief, an ideal, a value system), but later try to alter that belief to make it consistent with a current behavior; the cognitive dissonance occurs when the person's cognition does not match the action taken. If the person changes the current attitude, after the dissonance occurs, they are then obligated to commit to that course of behavior.

Cognitive dissonance produces a state of [[affect (psychology)|negative affect]], which motivates the person to reconsider the causative behavior in order to resolve the psychological inconsistency that caused the mental stress.<ref name = human/><ref name="Harmon-Jones, E. 1999. pp. 71" /><ref name =dissonance/><ref>Jones, E. E., Gerard, H. B., 1967. Foundations of Social Psychology. New York: Wiley.{{page needed|date=November 2021}}</ref><ref name="McGregor et al 1999">{{cite book |doi=10.1037/10318-013 |chapter='Remembering' dissonance: Simultaneous accessibility of inconsistent cognitive elements moderates epistemic discomfort |title=Cognitive dissonance: Progress on a pivotal theory in social psychology |year=1999 | vauthors = McGregor I, Newby-Clark IR, Zanna MP  |pages=325–353 |isbn=1-55798-565-0 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Newby-Clark IR, McGregor I, Zanna MP | title = Thinking and caring about cognitive inconsistency: when and for whom does attitudinal ambivalence feel uncomfortable? | journal = Journal of Personality and Social Psychology | volume = 82 | issue = 2 | pages = 157–166 | date = February 2002 | pmid = 11831406 | doi = 10.1037/0022-3514.82.2.157 }}</ref> As the affected person works towards a behavioral commitment, the motivational process then is activated in the left [[frontal cortex]] of the brain.<ref name =human>{{cite journal | vauthors = Beckmann J, Kuhl J |title=Altering information to gain action control: Functional aspects of human information processing in decision making |journal=Journal of Research in Personality |date=June 1984 |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=224–237 |doi=10.1016/0092-6566(84)90031-x }}</ref><ref name="Harmon-Jones, E. 1999. pp. 71">{{cite book |doi=10.1037/10318-004 |chapter=Toward an understanding of the motivation underlying dissonance effects: Is the production of aversive consequences necessary? |title=Cognitive dissonance: Progress on a pivotal theory in social psychology |year=1999 | vauthors = Harmon-Jones E |pages=71–99 |isbn=1-55798-565-0 }}</ref><ref name =dissonance>{{cite journal | vauthors = Harmon-Jones E | s2cid = 2024700 | year = 2000a | title = Cognitive Dissonance and Experienced Negative Affect: Evidence that Dissonance Increases Experienced Negative Affect even in the Absence of Aversive Consequences | journal = Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin | volume = 26 | issue = 12| pages = 1490–1501 | doi=10.1177/01461672002612004}}</ref><ref>Jones, E. E., Gerard, H. B., 1967. Foundations of Social Psychology. New York: Wiley.{{page needed|date=November 2021}}</ref><ref name="McGregor et al 1999"/>