A Comparative Citation Analysis of Attribution Theory and the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance

Though never empirically verified, it is the general consensus among social psychologists that cognitive dissonance is no longer an actively researched area. In contrast, attribution theory is currently regarded as continuing to have a major influence in social psychological research. In order to examine this widely held belief, Leon Festinger's Theory of Cognitive Dissonance and Fritz Heider's Psychology of Interpersonal Relations (1958) were used as source indicators for dissonance and attribution theory, respectively, and citations to these two targets were tabulated for the years 1958-1987 using the Science Citation Index and Social Science Citation Index. As expected, the rate of citation to dissonance theory has decreased substantially during the past 15 years, while citations to attribution theory have remained relatively steady. The pattern of differential citation rates is even more evident within subsets of general psychology journals and social psychology journals. The results are discussed in terms of intellectual, methodological, and theoretical differences between the two theories.

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