Decades after cognitive dissonance theory emerged, we still generally presume that Attitude precedes and drives Behavior, when it's actually a much more complex relationship that often goes in the other direction. From Elliot Aronson (1992): jstor.org/stable/1448979 
"Dissonance is greatest and clearest when it involves not just any two cognitions but, rather, a cognition about the self and a piece of our behavior that violates that self-concept." Aronson, 1992
"Most individuals strive for three things: 1. To preserve a consistent, stable, predictable sense of self. 2. To preserve a competent sense of self. 3. To preserve a morally good sense of self..." 1/
"What leads me to perform dissonance-reducing behavior is my having done something that (a) astonishes me, (b) makes me feel stupid, or (c) makes me feel guilty. Needless to say, the three strivings can be in conflict with one another." Aronson, 1992 2//
"The task of the scientist is not to prove one proposition right and true and the other utterly false, but to painstakingly find the conditions under which one or the other is more likely to occur." ~Elliot Aronson, 1992
