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The aim of the two studies was to explore a new dissonance paradigm–expressive dissonance–based on the inconsistency between what people feel and what people express behaviorally. Expressive dissonance was aroused by asking participants to watch a film with a high emotional content, either positive (joy) or negative (sadness). In the no-dissonance condition, they received the instruction to naturally watch the film. In the expressive dissonance condition, they received the instruction to facially express emotions that were the opposite of what they felt. We expected that the expressive dissonance situation would: 1) require cognitive resources leading to a decrease in cognitive performance (studies 1 and 2); 2) be accompanied by emotional regulation strategies (study 1); 3) be accompanied by an increase in dissonance-related affects (study 2). Although our results (studies 1 and 2) corroborated those obtained previously in terms of performance, they also showed that participants in the expressive dissonance situation use emotional regulation strategies: exaggeration and suppression (study 1), and that they felt self-directed negative affects (study 2), just like the participants in a cognitive dissonance situation. These first results allowed us to establish a theoretical bridge between the theories of emotions–particularly those related to the emotional regulation processes–and to widen the scope of relevance of the dissonance theory. Keywords: emotional inconsistency, emotional regulation, dissonance thermometer, emotional gap, cognitive dissonance How to Cite: Pelt, A., Barbier, L., & Fointiat, V. (2018). Expressive Dissonance: When Emotional Inconsistency Arouses Dissonance. International Review of Social Psychology, 31(1), 17. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/irsp.118 Handling Editor: Daniel Priolo Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, FR X close 1655 Views 256 Downloads 3 Twitter Published on 18 May 2018 Peer Reviewed CC BY 4.0 Cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957) is one of the key theories of social psychology. It can be presented in a few key points. Firstly, the presence in the cognitive universe of two inconsistent cognitions (Lawrence and Festinger, 1962) arouses a state of aversive tension, a state of psychological discomfort. Then, the greater the inconsistency, the greater is the dissonance. Finally, as this state is motivational in nature, as such it calls to be reduced. Festinger (1957) devised a tool for the theory of dissonance, allowing the extent of the dissonance to be quantified: the dissonance ratio given by the relationship of the inconsistent cognitions with all of the relevant cognitions, that is to say inconsistent and consistent.

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