Misattribution of Arrousal as a Means of Dissonance Reduction
David Drachman; Steven Worchel
Sociometry, Vol. 39, No. 1
(Mar., 1976), 53-59

The application of Festinger's theory to this article.
...when two cognitions stand in a dissonant relationship a negative motivational state will be arroused, and the individual will be motivated to reduce this arousal by making the cognitions more consonant with each other
Its possible that arrousal may be misattributed to another more readily available and plausible cause from the immediate environment. By choice, deliberate or subconscious, one might choose to avoid the real cause of dissonance by distracting one's self with rituals that temporarily reduce dissonance.
Sources of artificial stimulation such as mass media are sought out as distractions from problems. Seeking novelty is a means of dissonance reduction that often fails. Addictions to substances begin as attempts to reduce dissonance. Then, actual problems are blamed on the substance abuse.
  1. Actual stimuli: The original cause of the arousal.
    1. Hunger, chronic pain, chronic fear or negative reminders about your own situation generated from mass media exposure.
  2. Assumed stimuli: The perceived cause of the arousal, or the misattributed source of the stimuli.
    1. Something in the immediate environment that sets you off. A dirty glass left in the sink, clothes on the floor, a rude remark, a dirty look.
  3. Cognitive Realignment: Changing one's mind about the source of arousal. If the arousal persists for a period after the assumed stimulus is gone, then one will decide that the assumed stimulus is not the actual stimulus.
    1. You finally stop and ask yourself "What's really going on here?"
    2. Sometimes called a "moment of clarity" by alcoholics.
    3. You finally realize that you are opening the refrigerator too often and you realize you don't need snacks during commercials and you wonder "what's making me do this?"
  4. Superstition: The assumed stimuli is removed at or near the same time the arousal subsides, reinforcing a belief in the assumed stumuli as the cause of the arousal.
The application of misattribution in social manipulation
1. You receive or overhear information from person A about person B that is disparaging and you find it funny. You may or may not laugh, but nonetheless, you are amused. 2. The first time after you hear the information, you see person B, you are reminded of the information you heard. 3. You behave differently than you would if you had not heard the information. You avert your eyes, stop talking, or stifle your movements. 4. You experience guilt for finding the disparaging information amusing, therefore you gain feelings of guilt that are triggered each time you see person B.
5. Over time, the initial information that amused you about person B is forgotten, but the negative emotion that is triggered by the presence of person B remains because it is reinforced on a regular basis. 6. Whenever person B appears, you feel bad, but since you have forgotton the original information, you cannot rationalize why you feel bad around person B. 7. You rationalize that person B must be a bad person because B makes you feel bad every time B shows up. It annoys you and it makes you incrimentally frustrated and angry at person B instead of person A. 8. You begin to seek more negative information about person B, perhaps taking things person B says, out of context in order to rationalize and justify your false, negative feelings toward person B.