Modeling of communication response methods in conditions of structural balance and cognitive dissonance

Effective communication skills are the most essential ones not only in everyday situations but in business and professional communication. Inability to choose a proper communication strategy and intuitive interaction do not allow the communicator to solve mentally challenging tasks. When an individual perceives new information, he uses cognitive restructuring of his experience which results in consonance or dissonance. The aim of this research is to propose a process of effective communication that is conscious and controlled by the individual when he experiences cognitive dissonance. Reasons of cognitive dissonance in communication and ways of retaking consonance are identified. To move from dissonance to consonance you need autoreflexive and analytical skills such as text analysis, analysis of the speaker’s motives, analysis of your won cognitive system and incoming information, finding textual presuppositions and speech situation as a whole, logic restructuring, filling in knowledge gaps. The main way of individual’s impact on himself and other people which he uses to reduce dissonance is influence of constructive or destructive nature. Employing Hanlon’s razor model of communicative response, the authors demonstrate two communication strategies. The first strategy can be presented in a form of an algorithm: receiving an alarm signal, analysis of speech situation factors, building a speaker’s psychological profile, predicting outcomes by analyzing and comparing the consequences, choosing the most adequate variant to construct a communication strategy. The second behavior strategy which is logically built presupposes analyzing the situation and then selecting a response model and using methods of negative impacts resistance or methods of argumentation. The authors come to the conclusion that formation of effective communication skills requires developed logical thinking, fact-based analysis skills, ability to compare and collate data to find differences and contradictions, target setting skills, self-control, sound self-confidence and self-education.

communication, response model, influence, structural balance, cognitive dissonance