Tom recently bought a pair of headphones, XOB 10, from Blue for $99. Within a month, Tom's friend, Leo, bought a brand new pair of headphones XGD 20, released by Soundz, online at a reduced price of $86. Tom tried the XGD 20 and found it to be significantly better than the XOB 10. In this scenario, Tom is most likely to experience:


A) cognitive dissonance

B) self-actualization

C) problem recognition

D) external information search

E) criteria evaluation