Twenty years of cognitive dissonance: case study of the evolution of a theory.

Recent revisions of cognitive dissonance theory no longer encompass some of the important examples, data, and hypotheses that were part of Festinger's original statement. Further, the psychological character of the motivation for cognitive change can be interpreted, in recent statements of the theory, as a need to preserve self-esteem rather than a need to maintain logic-like consistency among cognitions. These changes are so substantial as to prompt the observation that the evolved theory might be identified as a different theory-in fact, as one that predates cognitive dissonance theory. A final, disturbing thought: What if the original dissonance theory, which has now surrendered its name to somewhat different ideas, was correct?