A PÓS-VERDADE PELO VIÉS DA TEORIA DA DISSONÂNCIA COGNITIVA

Abstract

The present article aims to establish a conceptual articulation between the phenomenon of post-truth and Cognitive Dissonance Theory, created by psychologist Leon Festinger in 1957 and subsequently adopted by the field of communication to understand the process of information selection/exclusion by the public. Festinger pointed out in his empirical study that people tend to seek information to reinforce their own beliefs and pre-existing opinions. The proposal here is to make a theoretical/conceptual approximation as an attempt to identify a theoretical framework in the fields of communication and psychology to analyze post-truth and the consequent context of fake news. We employed the methodology of literature review to map some works already produced on the topics, mainly in the field of communication. In conclusion, we find that Cognitive Dissonance Theory proves to be valid as a theoretical, bibliographical, and conceptual basis for elucidating, at least in part, the phenomenon of post-truth.