Balance Theory

Theorist: Fritz Heider and Theodore Newcomb

Date: 1946

Primary Article: Heider, F. (1946). Attitudes and cognitive organization. Journal of Psychology, 21, 107-112.


The Balance theory suggests that we want to have balance in our lives.

When two attitudes collide we must strive to strike a balance between the two attitudes. The balance varies depending on the intensity we feel about each attitude and our pre-disposed positions concerning the attitude. We either have a favourable, neutral or unfavorable opinion concerning ideas.

Balance theory proposes that there are three ways in which a person can feel balance:

First, the source and receiver can both dislike something and at the same time like each other, so they experience comfort and balance.

Second, the source and receiver can have a positive attitude toward an object/idea and display positive feelings toward one another, therefore experiencing comfort and balance.

Third, the source and the receiver can disagree about an idea/object and also dislike each other, therefore experiencing comfort because they know that they disagree about the values of certain objects/ideas.

So, when two attitudes collide we must strive to strike a balance between the two attitudes. The balance varies depending on the intensity we feel about each attitude and our pre-disposed positions concerning the attitude. We either have a favourable, neutral or unfavourable opinion concerning ideas. When two attitudes collide we attempt to downgrade the favourable position and upgrade the unfavourable position so that we feel a balance.

For example, a girl likes Sachin Tendulkar (the Indian cricketing superstar) and football. However, Tendulkar does not like football.

Therefore, this system is in imbalance. To balance the system, one of three things would happen. The girl would have to:

i) downgrade her opinion of Tendulkar
ii) downgrade her opinion of football
iii) downgrade both

Balance theory presents analytic consistency in that the theoretical assumptions fit together. The method of investigation in this theory is timely. The theory is practical, and can be heuristically applied in other fields.

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