Journal article
A Systematic Review of Cognitive Dissonance-Based Interventions for Health Behavior
Basic and applied social psychology, pp 1-17
01 Apr 2026
Abstract
Unhealthy behaviors, like substance use, poor dietary intake, and physical inactivity, are highly harmful yet pervasive. Cognitive dissonance can motivate behavior change by highlighting the discrepancy between one’s behavior and its known consequences. This systematic review reports the effectiveness of dissonance-based interventions for non-clinical health behavior change. Twenty-one studies were included, most commonly targeting exercise, condom use, alcohol use, driving safety, and COVID-19 precautions. Most interventions utilized the induced compliance and/or hypocrisy induction paradigms. Sixteen (76.2%) found beneficial effects on health behaviors measured at a follow-up. The studies demonstrated moderate risk of bias, particularly in outcome assessment, as most relied on self-report measures. Nevertheless, dissonance-based interventions may be effective in eliciting health behavior change.
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Details
- Title
- A Systematic Review of Cognitive Dissonance-Based Interventions for Health Behavior
- Creators
- Charlotte J. Hagerman (Corresponding Author) - Drexel UniversityDanny K. Choo-Kang - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Basic and applied social psychology, pp 1-17
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- Number of pages
- 17
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Center for Weight, Eating and Lifestyle Science (WELL) [Historical]
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001731602300001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-105035352348
- Other Identifier
- 991022172845204721
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Psychology, Social