Cognitive dissonance, ego-involvement, and motivated reasoning

One of the enduring topics for persuasion research is motivated reasoning, when people respond to persuasive messages in ways other than seeking to form an accurate attitude. This essay advances the position that the existing research can be synthesized using the self-concept approach to cognitive dissonance with ego-involvement added as the key explanatory variable to indicate when an issue is likely tied to the individual’s self-concept and thus potentially produce cognitive dissonance. The research on motivated reasoning is reviewed with this theoretical lens with recommendations on how to use this theory to advance research on understanding and reducing maladaptive motivated reasoning.