Cognition, Brain, Behavior.

An Interdisciplinary Journal
Copyright © 2022 Babeș-Bolyai University. All rights reserved.
ISSN: Print 2247-9228, Online 2601-226X
Volume XXVI, No. 4 (December), 215-229
doi:10.24193/cbb.2022.26.12

Cognitive dissonance and its relationship to emotional

intelligence
Omar Atallah Al-Adamat1,*, Adnan Yousef Atoum2
1
Ministry of Education, Mafraq, Jordan
2
Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan

Abstract

The current study aimed to identify the level of cognitive dissonance among students
of Al al-Bayt University in Jordan in terms of gender, academic specialization and
level, and to reveal the predictive ability of emotional intelligence for cognitive
dissonance. The study sample consisted of 235 male and female students from Al al-
Bayt University. The Cognitive Dissonance Scale (Al-Adamat & Atoum, 2022) and
the Emotional Intelligence Scale (Al-Alwan, 2011) were used to collect the data. The
findings of this study indicated that the level of cognitive dissonance was average.
Statistically significant differences were identified in the level of cognitive
dissonance in terms of gender, higher scores being reported by males. Also, there
were significant differences in terms of academic specialization, in the favor of
humanities major, and academic level, in the favor of the second, third and fourth
year students. In addition, findings revealed that emotional intelligence explained
9.3% of the cognitive dissonance variance.

Keywords: cognitive dissonance, emotional intelligence, students.

Scientific and technological advancement, as well as the rapid expansion of

knowledge, are supposed to have an impact on a student's personality, life, thoughts,
and behavior in various situations. In light of these developments, the student aspires
to observe his conduct and pursue his thoughts in a new way, so that she/he is in sync
with his ideas, attitudes, self, personality, and behavior (Atoum & Al-Momani, 2018).
In some cases, a student may find him/herself trapped in a circle of opposing ideas,
opinions, beliefs, and behavior. In the case of cognitive dissonance, a student may
experience psychological distress and may attempt to control any emotions that may
affect the individual's life or close relationships in order to ensure ability to adapt and
reach a state of psychological stability.
Cognitive dissonance is an emotional state that occurs when a person's
cognitive elements demand one or more of them to be the polar opposite of one

*Corresponding author:
E-mail: [email protected]
216 O. A. Al-Adamat, A. Y. Atoum

another. The inconsistency between these components may motivate them to engage
in actions that will help minimize feelings of discomfort, in an attempt to relieve this
tension in different ways (Reiger, 2000). This sometimes requires individuals to
create knowledge by adding some harmonious knowledge, raising the importance of
this harmonious knowledge, and reducing incompatible knowledge and its
importance (Al-Lihyani & Al-Otaibi, 2021).
The concept of resistance to change is fundamental to the theory because,
without it, the theory's expectations would be impossible to achieve, and it serves as
a coordinating point for assessing the significance or depth of the dissonance and how
it might be minimized. Because disharmony can be reduced when one feels
accountable for bringing knowledge into inconsistent or incompatible relationships,
this idea also suggests personal responsibility (Wicklund & Brehm, 1976).
Emotional intelligence has been defined in a variety of ways. Goleman
(1995) defined it as a set of emotional and social skills and competencies that enable
an individual to identify his own and others' feelings, motivate himself, manage his
emotions, and his relationships with others, all of which are necessary for
professional success.
A study conducted by Mangi et al. (2021) examined the role of emotional
intelligence as a mediating factor between cognitive dissonance variables, emotional
effort, and work engagement among a group of teachers. The results indicated that
emotional intelligence as a mediating variable reduced the negative correlation
between cognitive dissonance and work engagement. These findings showed that
emotional intelligence, as a mediating variable, helped to mitigate the unfavorable
relationship between cognitive dissonance and work engagement.
According to Devi and Saravanakumar (2017), individuals who are new to
any recent experience face cognitive dissonance as result of the inexperience and lack
of training, as well as the surrounding conditions in the real world being completely
different from what they learned in the actual training program. Emotions, on the
other hand, play a vital influence in university students' successful learning. For
instance, students who manage their emotions and better understand others’ emotions
can benefit more from learning experiences since the stress level lowers and the
motivation to learn will better maintained.
The current study aims to reveal the levels of cognitive dissonance in terms
of university students’ gender, academic specialization and level, and the predictive
ability of emotional intelligence in explaining the variance of cognitive dissonance
among university students. Emotional intelligence is one of the predictors of success,
high achievement, and good adjustment to various environmental distresses (Atoum
& Al-Shoboul, 2018). Therefore, it is logical to assume the ability of emotional
intelligence in predicting cognitive dissonance by means of having the ability to
resolve dissonance and overcome it easily.
More specifically, the study attempted to answer the following questions:
(1) What is the level of cognitive dissonance among Al al-Bayt University students?

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(2) Are there statistically significant differences (α =.05) in the level of cognitive
dissonance among Al al-Bayt University students in terms of gender, academic
specialization and academic level?
(3) What is the predictive ability of emotional intelligence regards cognitive
dissonance among Al al-Bayt University students?
The theoretical contribution of the current study lies in expanding the scientific
knowledge in this field. This study aims to investigate the relationship between
cognitive dissonance and emotional intelligence because of their significant impact on
students' university lives and due to lack of research between these two variables.
From a practical perspective, this study provides information on this issue to
faculty members and those in charge of the educational process in institutes and
universities. Our findings will allow them to focus on developing emotional skills so
that students can avoid contradicting situations that affect their learning process.

Cognitive dissonance
The term "cognitive dissonance" was coined by the American psychologist Leon
Festinger in his book (A theory of cognitive dissonance) in 1957. Since then, the
theory presented in this book has been known as the "Cognitive Dissonance Theory".
Festinger (1957) stated that cognitive dissonance is a state of contradiction and
inconsistency between an individual's opinions, beliefs, and behavior, which leads to
instability in the individual's internal psychological state, and thus his sense of
discomfort, psychological pressure, and tension. Consequently, the individual seeks
to restore his stability by making more efforts to reduce or eliminate the state of
contradiction to reach a state of harmony between his opinions, trends and beliefs
with his personality, psychological structure, behavior, and the surrounding
environment (Festinger, 1957). Cognitive dissonance is a state of clashing between
belief, attitudes and behavior, which is accompanied by a sensation of discomfort,
and which drives a person to seek to restore the balance between these components
by changing one of them (Festinger, 1957).
Cognitive dissonance theory is one of the theories known as "consonance
theories" that starts with the assumption that people are more at peace in a harmony and
homogeneity state than in dissonance because people naturally look for stability. The
cognitive system is a major tool by which this balance is attained, so the mind is
considered as a system that takes inputs from the environment in the form of
information, processes it, and then creates behavioral outputs (Littlejohn & Foss, 2005).
Littlejohn and Foss (2005) defined cognitive dissonance as a complex and
overlapping system of ideas, attitudes, and values that influence and are influenced
by behavior. According to Sillamy (2006), cognitive dissonance is a state of internal
stresses caused by an individual's cognition being dispersed and distributed across a
set of contradictory concepts. Salameh and Ghbari (2016) described cognitive
dissonance as a state that an individual experiences as result of his/her obsession with
two beliefs or thoughts that are inherently conflicting but are equally important.

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Numerous studies have been conducted to test the cognitive dissonance

theory using diverse experimental designs and situations. In free choice experiences,
Kretchmar (2008) claims that if an individual is forced to do or say something that
contradicts his beliefs and attitudes, the coerce will eliminate the dissonance. Instead,
in forced compliance experiences, Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) consider that
disharmony occurs if the individual acts in a manner contrary to his attitudes. For
example, an individual will say something contrary to his beliefs in private compare
to public. Also, in effort justification experiences, one of the things that provoke
dissonance is the individual's participation in a pleasant task to obtain desirable
results. Knowing that an activity is unpleasant leads the individual not to engage in
this activity and the dissonance will be greater. Here, the dissonance can be reduced
by exaggerating the quality of the outcomes that the individual will obtain when
performing this activity, as it is considered as addition of consistent knowledge. For
example, someone can do a contradictive behavior to his beliefs for a higher prize;
say a 1000$ compare to 1$ (Kretchmar, 2008).
Numerous studies found moderate level of students' cognitive dissonance
(Salameh & Ghbari, 2016; Al-Adamat & Atoum, 2018; Abu Thwaib, 2021; Kraiem,
2016). In contrast, according to a study conducted by Shimimol and Koya (2017), the
level of students’ cognitive dissonance is low. There is a discrepancy in the results of
studies regarding variances in levels of cognitive dissonance due to student’s gender,
specialization, and academic level (Reiger, 2000; Salameh & Ghbari, 2016; Kraiem,
2016; Al-Adamat & Atoum, 2018). While some studies showed no differences, others
identified differences in terms of gender, specialization, and academic level of
student. In this sense, Salameh and Ghbari (2016), and Kraiem (2016) found
significant differences in cognitive dissonance in the favor of males.

Emotional intelligence
Mayer and Salovey (1997) defined emotional intelligence as a person's ability to
monitor his own emotions, as well as the feelings and emotions of others, and to
distinguish between them, and utilize them to guide his thoughts and behavior. Bar-
On (1997) claims that emotional intelligence is a set of cognitive skills, abilities, and
competencies that affect an individual's ability to cope with external demands and
pressures.
Goleman (2000) attempted to simplify the concept of emotional intelligence.
This author modified the concept based on the works of Mayer and Salovey (1997).
According to Goleman (2000), emotional intelligence comprises a set of traits namely
self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.
Mayer and Salovey (1997) proposed that four fundamental emotion-related
abilities comprise emotional intelligence that include awareness of emotions and
expressing them, the ability to use emotions as a guide for the thinking process, the
ability to understand and analyze emotions, and the ability to manage emotions.

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Relationship between cognitive dissonance and emotional intelligence

Cognitive dissonance has an impact on an individual's performance in a variety of
situations, particularly new or unfamiliar ones; this means that an individual's ability
to deal with or try to solve an alienating situation is influenced by his emotional skills
and abilities, particularly in situations involving thinking and solving difficult and
complex problems (Mohammad, 2020).
In the economic management fields, Mao and Oppewal (2010) discussed the
emotional component of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance was evidenced
by the customer’s satisfaction following a purchase. Contrary to popular belief,
delivering contradictory information does not affect consumer satisfaction;
nevertheless, consistent information improves contentment and minimizes the
amount of discomfort experienced regarding their options. Consistent with the above
information, cognitive dissonance is an emotional state that occurs when a person's
cognitive elements demand one or more of them to be the polar opposite of the others.
As a state of contradiction, it encourages the individual to persevere in a cognitive
activity to minimize the number or importance of conflicting information with the
most resistance to change aspects (Al-Lahyni, 2012).
An individual with a high level of emotional intelligence feels more
cognitive dissonance because he is knowledgeable enough to perceive and question
the contradictions in daily life while also having a greater ability to deal with
dissonant situations and control their emotion. Individuals can acquire life
satisfaction, which helps them deal with situations of contradiction involving
cognitive and emotional aspects (UK Essays, 2018; Atoum & Almunaizel, 2011).

METHOD

Research design
The descriptive correlation design was employed in this study since it is the most
suited for achieving the study's goals by collecting survey data through valid and
reliable scales.

Population and sample

The population consists of all undergraduate students at Al al-Bayt University
(N = 16690) who are registered in the second semester of the academic year
2021/2022, according to the data issued by the Admission and Registration
Department. Several classes were selected from the university's requirements courses
to ensure that gender, specialization and academic levels were represented since all
university students are required to take these courses. The study sample consisted of
235 male and female students who were chosen by the convenient sampling method.
Table 1 includes demographic information regarding the respondents.

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Table 1
Sample Statistics of the Respondents
Variable Frequency %
Gender Male 86 37
Female 149 63
Academic specialization Scientific 164 70
Humanities 71 30
Academic level First year 112 48
Second year 54 23
Third year 49 21
Fourth year 20 08
Total 235 100.0

Instruments
Cognitive dissonance
The current study used a cognitive dissonance scale developed for Jordanian
university students (Al-Adamat & Atoum, 2022). It consists of 18 realistic life
situations; each situation is followed by two questions. The 36 multiple-choice
questions determine the respondent's tendency of cognitive dissonance. The scale
consisted of six domains: content and familial status, emotional control, adaptation
and personal health, university and learning, upbringing and coexistence with life,
and dependency/dominance. In the scale, each multiple-choice question is followed
by four choices and the correct choice receives a score of 1 and the incorrect choice
receives the score of 0. The total score on the scale ranges between 0 and 36.
Face validity was examined by presenting the tool to nine experienced
committee specialized in Educational Psychology and measurement, and assessment.
The norm for agreement to change the items of the scale was 80% was. Based on this
norm, some linguistic changes on the items and situations were made. The final
version of the scale included 36 items. To check the construct validity of the scale, it
was administered to a pilot sample of 43 male and female students from Al al-Bayt
University. The correlation coefficient between each item and its factor were
calculated. They ranged from .23 to .91. The values of the correlation coefficients
between the score on items and the overall score of the scale ranged from .32 to .98.
It should be noted that all the correlation coefficients were higher than .20 and
statistically significant. To examine the reliability of the cognitive dissonance scale,
the internal consistency coefficients were calculated using the Cronbach’s alpha
equation on the previous pilot sample. As can be seen in Table 2, the values of the
internal consistency coefficients (alpha Cronbach) ranged from .70 to .87 for the
factors of the scale, and .96 for the overall scale.

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Table 2
Cronbach's Alpha Internal Consistency Coefficients for the Cognitive Dissonance Overall
Scale and Sub-scales
Domain alpha Cronbach
Family context & status .82
Emotions control .84
Adaptation and personal health .87
University and learning .82
Upbringing and coexistence with life .70
Dependency/dominance .74
Total Cognitive dissonance .96

Emotional Intelligence
The emotional intelligence scale developed by Al-Alwan (2011) based on Mayer and
Salovey (1997) was adapted to suit undergraduate students in the Jordanian
environment. The scale, in its initial form, consists of 41 items grouped under four
domains: the emotional knowledge, emotion control, empathy, and social
communication. Response were graded according to the five-point Likert type scale,
where the response to all items of the scale ranges between (strongly agree, agree,
neutral, disagree, strongly disagree) and corresponds to grades (5, 4, 3, 2, 1)
respectively for all items. Al-Alwan (2011) presented evidence of good content and
construct validity, and good indicators of reliability through Cronbach’s alpha
coefficients.
Nine experts in educational psychology were invited to check the scale for
clarity and the construction of the scale items and domains. 80% was the norm for
agreement to change the items of the scale, and four items were deleted and some
linguistic corrections were made, so the final scale consisted of 37 items.
The scale was administered to a pilot sample of 40 male and female students.
Correlations coefficients between the score on items and the total score ranged
between .70 to .86, while the correlation coefficients between the score on items and
factor scores were ranged between .32 to .81.
To verify the reliability of the emotional intelligence scale in the current
study, the internal consistency coefficients using the Cronbach alpha equation on the
total sample consisting of 235 male and female students from Al al-Bayt University.
The values of the Cronbach’s alpha ranged from .61 to .78 for the dimensions of the
cognitive dissonance scale, and .83 for the overall scale (see Table 3).

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Table 3
Cronbach's Alpha Internal Consistency Coefficients for the Emotional Intelligence Scale
Domain alpha Cronbach
Emotional knowledge .61
Emotion regulation .62
Empathy .78
Social communication .74
Total emotional intelligence .83

Procedure
To achieve the purposes of the current study, the following steps were followed:
(a). preparing the study sample and instrument and verifying their validity and
reliability; (b). administrating the instruments to the respondents, clarifying the
objectives of the study, giving them enough time to answer the questions of the two
scales, answering students' inquiries, asking them to answer truthfully, and telling
them that the results are for the purposes of scientific research only and will be treated
with complete confidentiality, and (c). collecting valid questionnaires for analysis,
and entering their data into the computer software, to carry out the appropriate
statistical analysis.

Data analysis
To answer the first research question (i.e., “What is the level of cognitive dissonance
among Al al-Bayt University students?”), arithmetic means and standard deviations
were calculated. To answer the second research question (i.e., “Are there statistically
significant differences in the level of cognitive dissonance among Al al-Bayt
University students in terms of gender, academic specialization and level?”) a three
Way ANOVA was conducted. Last, to answer the third research question, multiple
linear regression analysis was used.

RESULTS
The data was inspected before data analysis and the participants that showed a certain
answer patterns were deleted. To answer the first question: “What is the level of
cognitive dissonance among Al al-Bayt University students?”, means and standard
deviations of the level of cognitive dissonance among Al al-Bayt University students
were calculated. These are included in Table 4.

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Table 4
Descriptive Analysis of the Cognitive Dissonance Scale
Standard
Rank No. Domain Mean Level*
deviation
1 3 Adaptation and personal health .43 .36 Medium
2 Family context and status .39 .37 Medium
2 1 Emotions control .39 .38 Medium
2 4 University and learning .39 .38 Medium
5 5 Upbringing and coexistence with life .38 .38 Medium
5 6 Dependency/dominance .38 .37 Medium
Total Cognitive dissonance .39 .35 Medium
Note. *Up to .33 = Low, .34 - .66 = Medium, .67 - 1 = High.

Table 4 shows that the mean of the domains ranged between .38 - .43, where
the domain of adaptation and personal health ranked first with the highest mean (.43)
and at a medium level, while the domains of upbringing and coexistence with life
came, dependence/dominance ranked last with a mean of .38 and a medium level.
The overall mean of cognitive dissonance was .39 and with a medium level.
To answer the second question “Are there statistically significant differences
at the significance level (α = .05) in the level of cognitive dissonance among Al al-
Bayt University students in terms of gender, academic specialization and level?”,
means and standard deviations of the students’ cognitive dissonance were obtained
for each category of gender, academic specialization, and academic level (Table 5).
Table 5
Means and Standard Deviations of the Level of Cognitive Dissonance by Variables
Variables Category Mean Standard deviation N
Gender Male .46 .365 86
Female .36 .338 149
Academic specialization Scientific .32 .310 164
Humanities .56 .383 71
Academic level First year .26 .240 112
Second year .57 .394 54
Third year .42 .374 49
Fourth year .63 .375 20

Table 5 shows the differences in the means and standard deviations of the
students’ cognitive dissonance in terms of gender, academic specialization, and
academic level. A three-way ANOVA was used to test for differences and the results
as shown in Table 6.

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Table 6
The three-Way ANOVA for Cognitive Dissonance by Variables of Gender, Academic
Specialization and Level
Source of variance SS Df MS F-value Sig
Gender .768 1 .768 8.25*** .004
Academic specialization 1.982 1 1.982 21.29*** .000
Academic level 3.989 3 1.330 14.29*** .000
Error 21.313 229 .093
Total 28.883 234
Note.*** p < .001

Table 6 shows that there are statistically significant differences in cognitive

dissonance due to gender, where the f value is 8.251, with a statistical significance
of .004. Males reported higher scores than females. Moreover, we identified
statistically significant differences in cognitive dissonance due to the effect of
academic specialization, where the value of F is 21.294 and with a statistical
significance of < .001 in favor of the humanities. Also, there are statistically
significant differences due to the effect of the academic level, where the value
of F was 14.287 and with a statistical significance of < .001. Post-comparisons
(Scheffe) revealed statistically significant differences between first-year students on
the one hand, and second, third, and fourth-year students on the other hand, in favor
of students of the second, third, and fourth year. Also, significant differences in
cognitive dissonance were found between fourth, second and third year, in the favor
of the second and the fourth year.
To answer the third question: “What is the predictive ability of emotional
intelligence with cognitive dissonance among Al al-Bayt University students?”, a
correlational analysis (Pearson Correlation) between emotional intelligence and
cognitive dissonance was conducted as shown in Table 7.
Data in table 7 reveals significant and positive correlations between all
domains of emotional intelligence and, also, between all domains of cognitive
dissonance. Values of correlations ranged from .26 to .88. To reveal the predictive
ability of emotional intelligence on cognitive dissonance among students, multiple
linear regression analysis was used by adopting the method of stepwise into the
regression equation as indicated in Table (8).
Table 8 indicates that empathy and emotion regulation domains of emotional
intelligence were not significant in predicting the cognitive dissonance. The variables
involved in predicting the cognitive dissonance scale are emotional knowledge and
social communication, which together explained 9.3% of the variance of the
cognitive dissonance total score. The emotional knowledge variables was the best
predictor of the cognitive dissonance scale as it explained 6.6% of the variance,
followed by the social communication which explained 2.7% of the variance. The
percentage of the explained variance of these variables was statistically significant at
the significance level (α =.05).

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Table 7
The Correlational Matrix Between Emotional Intelligence Domains and Cognitive
Dissonance Domains
Domain C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 TS E1 E2 E3 E4 TS
C1 1
C2 .880** 1
C3 .874** .834** 1
C4 .848** .824** .827** 1
C5 .867** .857** .827** .847** 1
C6 .832** .814** .811** .803** .837** 1
Total Scale .954** .938** .928** .927** .939** .882** 1
E1 .276** .274** .286** .214** .239** .213** .274** 1
E2 .008 .005 .020 .004 -.002 -.026 .006 .382** 1
E3 .181** .224** .197** -.174** .167* .210** .202** .472** .455** 1
E4 -.150* -.11 -.073 -.176** -.102 -.145 -.132* .304** .264** .222** 1
Total Scale 175** .198** .198** .147* .156* .156** .186** .746** .755** .856** .398** 1
Note.**Correlation is significant at the .01 level (2-tailed).
*Correlation is significant at the .05 level (2-tailed).

Domain Cognitive Dissonance: C1: Family context & status; C2: Emotions control; C3: Adaptation
and personal health; C4: University and learning; C5: Upbringing and coexistence with life;
C6: Dependency/dominance.
Domain Emotional Intelligence: E1: Emotional knowledge; E2: Emotion regulation; E3: Empathy;
E4: Social communication.
Table 8
The Results of the Multiple Regression Test for the Variables Emotional Intelligence
Predicting Cognitive Dissonance
Variables Model 1 Model 2
B β SE B Β SE
Constant .321 .178 .021
Emotional knowledge .180 .257 .340
Social Communication .140 .320 .335
R² .066 .093
△R² .062 .085

DISCUSSIONS
Our first finding revealed that there was a medium level of cognitive dissonance
among university students. This finding can be explained by the respondents' attempt
to balance internal psychological factors with outward social forces. The university
community is characterized as an organized society subject to regulations, so, the
students strive to maintain a balance between keeping up with university regulations
and achieving their goals and desires so that they will be accepted by others and not
rejected in general. Also, students normally seek to create a state of balance between
keeping up with university requirements and satisfying their needs in order to achieve
their goals and desires (Al-Adamat & Atoum, 2018). This finding is consistent with
those of previous studies (Abu Thwaib, 2021; Al-Adamat & Atoum, 2018; Kraiem,

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2016; Salameh & Ghbari, 2016), which identified a medium level of cognitive
dissonance among respondents. The present finding was not in line with the results
of Shimimol and Koya’s study (2017) that showed a low level of cognitive
dissonance of the students.
In what regards our second research question, results revealed a statistically
significant in cognitive dissonance due to gender in the favor of males. The
researchers may ascribe this finding to society's culture, which holds that a man's or
a male's image should not be shattered and that he should appear in a manner that
reflects the image that society desires. Therefore, we find that the male individual in
eastern societies may show behaviour, ideas and beliefs that do not correspond to his
ideas and beliefs to satisfy the community. In addition, males are more concerned
than females about their professional future and this reflects in their educational
ability to carry out their material duties towards their families in the future. Hence,
the levels of cognitive dissonance between them vary. This finding is consistent with
those from previous studies (Al-Adamat & Atoum, 2018; Al-Adamat & Al-Adamat,
2019), which indicated that there are statistically significant differences in the level
of cognitive dissonance in the favor of males. Also, the present finding differs from
the result of studies conducted by Reiger (2000), Kraiem (2016), and Salameh and
Ghbari (2016) which indicated that there were no statistically significant differences
in the level of dissonance due to the gender variable. Our finding also differs from
another previous study (Abu Thwaib, 2021), which revealed statistically significant
differences in the level of cognitive dissonance in the favor of females.
The findings revealed statistically significant variations in the level of
cognitive dissonance related to the academic specialization variable, with the
humanities specializations outperforming the academic specializations. The
researchers may attribute this finding to the way students in the humanities and
scientific areas think. In terms of scientific and critical thinking, as well as the ability
to evaluate, conclude, discuss, and draw conclusions, students in scientific subjects
outperform students in the humanities. This finding contradict those of a previous
study (Salameh & Ghbari, 2016), which found no statistically significant differences
in the amount of cognitive dissonance related to the college variable. In addition, the
finding differs from those of the study conducted by Al-Adamat and Atoum (2018),
which found statistically significant differences in the level of cognitive dissonance
related to the college variable, with scientific colleges outperforming others.
The results also showed that there were statistically significant differences
in the level of cognitive dissonance due to the effect of the academic level, between
the first year, on the one hand, and the second year, the third year, and the fourth year,
on the other hand. The differences were in the favor of the second, the third, and the
fourth year. The researchers may attribute this result to the fact that students at this
level are more aware and involved in many tasks and establish more and strong social
relations with their fellow students than the first-year students, therefore, they are
more prone to cognitive dissonance. The findings of this study corroborate those of a
previous study (Reiger, 2000), which found statistically significant differences in the

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level of cognitive dissonance related to the academic level variable, with the fourth
year having the advantage. Our findings are not in line with those of the Chow and
Wood’s study (2001), which found that the degree of cognitive dissonance among
students decreased as the student's age and level increased. The findings of this study
differ from those of a previous study (Al-Adamat & Atoum, 2018), which found
statistically significant differences in the level of cognitive dissonance related to the
academic level variable, with the first year having the advantage.
The third question revealed that emotional knowledge and social
communication were involved in predicting cognitive dissonance and that they
combined explained (9.3%) of the variance explained by cognitive dissonance. The
cognitive dissonance dimension of emotional knowledge was the most predictive
explaining 6.6% of the variation in cognitive dissonance, followed by the domain of
social communication that explained 2.7%. The researchers may attribute this finding
to the fact that people aim for consistency, which causes cognitive dissonance. Often
people experience cognitive dissonance are disturbed by contradictions because an
emotionally unstable person tends to react negatively when exposed to new
experiences or changes that contradict his pre-existing views and patterns. It is
overdone and dramatic. Because he is knowledgeable enough to perceive and
examine the contradictions in daily life, an individual with a high level of emotional
intelligence has deeper sensations of cognitive dissonance. It is critical to raise an
individual's emotional intelligence since good emotional management can lead to
greater life satisfaction and can assist the individual in dealing with situations of
contradiction and dissonance that entail both cognitive and emotional aspects.

Limitations. The study was limited to students at Al al-Bayt University who were
registered in the second semester of the academic year 2021/2022. Accordingly, the
generalization of the results of the current study is limited to the study population and
similar societies, and the generalization of the results of the study is also determined
in light of the indications of validity and reliability of the study tools.

Future studies. In light of the findings of the current study, the researchers propose
the following: (i) developing a training program to reduce the cognitive dissonance
among university students (humanities majors), especially those in the second, third
and fourth year; (ii) conducting more studies that include programs based on
emotional intelligence and identifying the effect of these programs on reducing
cognitive dissonance among university students, and (iii) including some aspects of
emotional intelligence skills in faculty training in order to reduce students’ cognitive
dissonance in academic settings.

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228 O. A. Al-Adamat, A. Y. Atoum

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