Describe a study that demonstrates cognitive dissonance

What will be an ideal response?

Young adults were asked to perform a long, tedious task and then paid a large or small amount of money to tell someone else that the task was interesting. Those who were paid the small amount were more likely to say (later) that they really did enjoy the task. The explanation is that they felt cognitive dissonance, a tension resulting from believing one thing and doing something else, and the best way they had to reduce that tension was to convince themselves that what they said was what they really believed.