I just presented an article about Cognitive Dissonance. It’s a pretty interesting theory. The article, from 1967, discusses the dissonance involved in people’s decisions regarding buying a car. The easiest people for a car salesmen to persuade to buy a car are those that know a bit of what they want, but aren’t totally committed to anything specific. If they have no idea what they want, it is difficult to sell them a car because they don’t feel comfortable buying one without more knowledge. If they know exactly what they want, it is difficult to sell them a car because they are difficult to satisfy. So, the goal of communication is to use a paradoxical approach to discovering where individuals fall when it comes to their persuasibility. Once we know where they are, how do we best communicate with them? I thought this was an interesting theory.