What is Balance Theory?

The Balance Theory, also known as Cognitive Balance, proposed by Heider (1946) is a psychological concept that describes relationships amongst cognitions..

In simple terms, according to Heider:

• My friend’s friend is my friend.
• My friend’s enemy is my enemy.
• My enemy’s friend is my enemy.
• My enemy’s enemy is my friend.

He depicted liking relationships among a triad: 

• the Perceiver (P), 
• the attitude Object (X) and 
• The Other Person (O). 

Any resulting combination, whether a perceiver likes a concept or the other person or vice versa, is represented with minus and plus signs. 

When plus overcomes minus there is balance; in case of an imbalanced relationship the Balance Theory predicts that an attitude change would take place to restore the balance.

What are the 8 Configurations of Balance Theory?

In any triad there can be 8 relational configurations, relationships from 1 to 4 are balanced and those from 5 to 8 are unbalanced:

Balanced:

1. P+O; P+X; O+X
2. P+O; P-X; O-X
3. P-O; P+X; O-X
4. P-O; P-X; P+X

Unbalanced (likely to be turned into the above balanced relationships in order to restore balance):

1. P+O; P+X; O-X
2. P+O; P-X; O+X
3. P-O; P+X; O+X
4. P-O; P-X; O-X

Balance Theory Example

A well-known example of Balance Theory is the triadic relationship between Michael Jordan (O), Nike Shoes (X) and the Potential Customer (P). When a Potential Customer likes Michael Jordan (P+O), and Jordan states Nike Shoes are great (O+X), if he doesn’t like Nike Shoes (P-X) he feels uncomfortable and the relationship is imbalanced. Therefore to restore the balance he will change his attitude into (P+X) thus returning to configuration number 1.

This theory is closely related to Congruity Theory.