Cognitive (and aff ective)
anced triads. An example of a balanced triad
would be when you and the other person like
each other and you both like Coldplay. However,
if you and the other person disliked each other
but both liked Coldplay, an imbalanced triad
would be formed. Heider argued that people
prefer balance and seek to establish or restore
balance but can tolerate imbalance.
Osgood and Tannenbaum (1955) sought to
investigate the eff ect of diff erences in the degree
of like or dislike between the elements on the
process of dealing with imbalance. Th e principle
of congruity as advanced by Charles Osgood and
Percy Tannenbaum in ‘Th e principle of congru-
ity in the prediction of attitude change’, Psycho-
logical Review 62 (1955) holds that when change
in evaluation or attitude occurs, it always occurs
in the direction of increased congruity with the
prevailing frame of reference. Th at is, it will be
the weaker attitude or belief that will give way.
Th e opposite of cognitive balance is cognitive
dissonance, a notion analysed by Leon Festinger
in A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (Row
Peterson, 1957). Cognitive dissonance results
from a lack of consistency between two cogni-
tions – attitudes, values, beliefs, ideas and so on.
Festinger argued that cognitive dissonance moti-
vates the individual to try to resolve the resulting
lack of harmony, and he identified strategies
by which individuals try to achieve this. Th ree
such strategies are: to change the less important
cognition; to deny evidence that the cognitions
are in confl ict; or to change the importance of
the cognitions. Take for example the dissonance
that might be felt by a heavy drinker who values
their health. To reduce the dissonance they
could cut down on their alcohol consumption,
or they could deny the validity of the evidence
that suggests that heavy drinking is bad for one’s
health, or they could decide that it is much more
important to continue heavy drinking and enjoy
life than to live for longer.
Th e theory predicts that people will seek out
information that confi rms existing attitudes and
views of the world or reinforces other aspects
of behaviour. Similarly it predicts that people
will avoid information which is likely to increase
dissonance. If you dislike a person, and you
dislike his/her views, what he/she says is unlikely to
cause cognitive dissonance, for there is a congru-
ence here. Dissonance is acute when a liked person
says something seemingly ‘out of character’ or fails
to accord with expectations or the image held of
him/her. Clearly, cognitive dissonance theory can
shed much light on why acts of communication
may be resisted and rejected.structure of signifi eds’. For him the text ‘is not
unitary, architectonic, fi nite’ and the approach
to it is characterized by ‘blanks and looseness
of analysis’. The meaning of the ‘readerly’ as
contrasted with the ‘writerly’ text is ultimately
elusive.
Cognitive (and aff ective) Th at area or domain
of human behaviour which can be described
as intellectual – knowing, understanding and
reasoning – is often referred to as the cognitive.
A substantial amount of media communication
is aimed at producing cognitive responses in
the receiver. Th at area which is involved with
attitudes, emotions, values and feelings is
termed the aff ective. Obviously the two overlap
and intertwine.
Whether the content of a message is cognitive
or aff ective in its orientations will greatly infl u-
ence the mode chosen for its communication.
If the content of a message is judged to be of
cognitive intent, then language will generally
be couched in neutral terms; presentation will
strive after objectivity and balance. An aff ective
message will be more likely to be framed in
emotive language, its imagery directed towards
emotional responses.
However, recent media research has been
directed towards a more critical analysis of the
allegedly objective modes of cognitive messages.
Th ere is concern as to whether the dissemination
of apparently neutral information – especially
if that dissemination is of some frequency
and consistency of treatment – influences
an audience’s perception of national and world
events. From the mass of available information,
the media select and reject. Th ey give emphasis
- and legitimacy – to some issues rather than
others, and they set the order of priorities (see
agenda-setting) as well as seeking to establish
links between occurrences and their causes in the
minds of the audience. See effects of the mass
media; glasgow university media group.
Cognitive capture See impartiality.
Cognitive Consistency theories The basic
premise of cognitive consistency theories is that
people prefer consistency among the various
elements of their cognitive system, for example
between attitudes and beliefs. Heider (1958)
investigated reactions to balance or imbalance in
dyads and, particularly, triads of elements. Th e
triads are known as POX triads. P represents the
person ‘you’; O represents the other person and
X represents a stimulus, for example an object
or event. The relationship between any two
elements can be positive or negative and their
combination can produce balanced or imbal-