COGNITIVE DISSONANCE:
Overview:
Cognitive Dissonance as a film concept is based on Leon Festinger's "Theory of Cognitive Dissonance" in which he claims that, "humans are not a rational animal, but a rationalizing one." If, for example, a person believes that a certain behavior is wrong, but that person participates in that behavior, then that person is trying to hold two competing or incongruent things to be true at the same time: the behavior is okay, but the behavior is not okay. Trying to believe both causes psychological pain until it is resolved. Since it is much easier to change a belief than a behavior, the person attempts to rationalize or justify the behavior to reduce the dissonance. In short, we come to believe in what we find ourselves doing -- regardless of the reason we first started doing it.
The film application is a little less individual. While watching a film, the audience is presented with two competing truths or realities: the diegetic world of the film itself and the non-diegetic world of the theater, living room, classroom, etc. in which the audience is watching the film. The audience, then, must make a choice of the world in which to believe. Normally (as this is why audiences watch films in the first place), the audience will want to choose the diegetic world. Once that choice is made, anything that reminds the audience of the possible reality of the other (real) world will prompt a poor reaction (in much the same way as a person would react if another person were to remind him/her that his/her behavior is unacceptable or unethical). This theory is an attempt to understand the relationship between the audience and the film.
The film application is a little less individual. While watching a film, the audience is presented with two competing truths or realities: the diegetic world of the film itself and the non-diegetic world of the theater, living room, classroom, etc. in which the audience is watching the film. The audience, then, must make a choice of the world in which to believe. Normally (as this is why audiences watch films in the first place), the audience will want to choose the diegetic world. Once that choice is made, anything that reminds the audience of the possible reality of the other (real) world will prompt a poor reaction (in much the same way as a person would react if another person were to remind him/her that his/her behavior is unacceptable or unethical). This theory is an attempt to understand the relationship between the audience and the film.
Method:
A film analysis using Cognitive Dissonance as its base, then, should include an explanation and evaluation of how effectively the film creates a believable world. The analysis should include any moments where the film lapses or reminds the audience that it is only a movie and there is a real world around them. This analysis, of course, should focus on the film itself and not on real-world interruptions such as talking audience members, rattling concession wrappers, nor lights from electronic devices.