نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
نویسندگان
1 دانشکده هنرهای صناعی، دانشگاه هنر اسلامی تبریز، تبریز، ایران
2 گروه انیمیشن و سینما، دانشکده هنر، دانشگاه تربیت مدرس، تهران، ایران
چکیده
کلیدواژهها
موضوعات
عنوان مقاله [English]
نویسندگان [English]
Background:
This study offers a comparative analysis of how cognitive dissonance—as conceptualized by Leon Festinger—is represented in two animated films from distinct cultural and cinematic traditions: Pixar’s Inside Out (2015) and Makoto Shinkai’s Your Name. (2016). Although emerging from different narrative universes—one psychological and internal, the other metaphysical and temporal—both films dramatize the human inability to sustain conflicting cognitions. The research seeks to explore how each narrative transforms psychological tension into narrative conflict and emotional evolution, thus expanding the theoretical and artistic dimensions of cognitive dissonance beyond its original psychological scope.
Methodology:
The research adopts a qualitative, interpretive, and comparative design based on narrative plot analysis. A five-axis analytical model—derived from the theoretical principles of Festinger’s theory and adapted for narrative inquiry—serves as the primary tool. The model investigates (1) the source of dissonance, (2) the intensity of dissonance, (3) accompanying emotions, (4) dissonance-reduction strategies, and (5) narrative outcomes. Each axis is operationalized through plot indicators such as conflict scenes, character choices, emotional cues, and shifts in narrative trajectory. The selected films were analyzed scene by scene to identify moments of cognitive tension and to interpret the characters’ psychological and behavioral responses.
Findings:
The comparative analysis reveals that Inside Out and Your Name. both reproduce the full cycle of cognitive dissonance—initial conflict, psychological strain, attempted reduction, and establishment of a new equilibrium—but they differ in locus, scale, and emotional tonality. In Inside Out, dissonance arises from environmental change and emotional regulation: Riley’s migration triggers a conflict between stability and adaptation, embodied in the interplay between Joy and Sadness. The film visualizes intrapsychic dissonance through the collapse of “Islands of Personality,” resolving it via a change in cognition—acceptance of sadness as an essential emotional function. Conversely, Your Name. externalizes dissonance in a spatio-temporal and collective framework: body-swapping, temporal displacement, and the destruction of Itomori symbolize the fragmentation of identity and reality. Dissonance is reduced not through internal cognitive change alone but through collective action, memory reconstruction, and the affective force of love. While Inside Out privileges emotional integration as the dissonance-reducing strategy, Your Name. emphasizes behavioral and relational transformation leading to social salvation.
Conclusion:
The findings indicate that both films extend Festinger’s model in directions that psychology alone does not fully address. Inside Out enriches the theory by underscoring the emotion-regulatory dimension of dissonance: equilibrium is achieved not merely through cognitive realignment but through affective reconciliation. Your Name. broadens the framework by integrating temporal, mnemonic, and cultural dimensions, demonstrating that cognitive dissonance can operate across identities, time frames, and collective memory. The proposed five-axis model proves effective in mapping these complex correspondences, translating psychological theory into narrative mechanics. Ultimately, the study argues that Inside Out and Your Name. represent two poles of a single continuum—the former inward, individual, and affective; the latter outward, social, and cosmological. Together they exemplify how contemporary animation transforms psychological conflict into a multilayered narrative grammar, revealing cognitive dissonance as a structural and emotional engine of storytelling.
کلیدواژهها [English]
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