The anticipation of cognitive inconsistency.

This paper describes a case of the anticipation and avoidance of cognitive inconsistency—dissonance niight be a better word but the term 'cognitive dissonance' now has a specialised meaning that would be inappropriate here. The potential cause of inconsistency was a workers' pension scheme introduced by a large engineering company. It was anticipated by the management of the company that the scheme would have some effect on the men's cognitive system within industry; that it would 'change the company's image', and 'change the men's attitudes to the company'. This was not the primary reason for introducing the scheme. It was claimed that the primary reason was to benefit the men but it was expected that, as a secondary effect, the scheme would lead to some change of attitudes. The men and in particular the shop stewards anticipated similar consequences of the scheme and wished to avoid them. The methods by which they did so are described below.