Cognitive dissonance refers to the discomfort we experience when we hold conflicting beliefs or engage in behavior that conflicts with a belief. One of our principal motivations is the drive to reduce cognitive dissonance, which we often do by seeking out justification for our behavior. In Festinger and Carlsmith's (1959) study, participants completed an extremely boring task and were then asked to recommend the task to another person as interesting and enjoyable. For this favor, one-third of the participants were paid $20 (a good deal of money at the time), one-third were paid $1, and one-third were not asked to do the favor. When asked later, how did the three groups of participants rate their level of interest in the task? According to cognitive dissonance theory, why did they do so?