Cognitive Dissonance In Psychology: Definition and Examples

For example, turning pegs (as in Festinger’s experiment) is an artificial task that doesn’t happen in everyday life. There are a variety of ways people are thought to resolve the sense of dissonance when cognitions don’t seem to fit together. They may include denying or compartmentalizing unwelcome thoughts, seeking to explain away a thought that doesn’t comport with others, or changing what one believes or one’s behavior. This episode of the podcast Behavioral Grooves features an interview with Dr. Kathleen Vohs on cognitive dissonance theory.

It’s more common to feel discomfort and to feel like you need to resolve the dissonance when cognitions are important to you or they conflict heavily with each other. Cognitive dissonance is a theory in social psychology first proposed by Leon Festinger. According to this theory, cognitive dissonance describes the discomfort experienced when two cognitions are incompatible with each other. Cognitive dissonance occurs when a person’s behavior and beliefs do not complement each other or when they hold two contradictory beliefs. It causes a feeling of discomfort that motivates people to try to feel better.

Translations of cognitive dissonance

Dr. Vohs discusses the topic as it relates to supporters of Former President Donald Trump justifying one of his controversial tweets in 2019. It provides an introduction to the theory and covers the topics of cognitive dissonance following decisions, the effects of forced compliance, the impacts of voluntary and involuntary exposure to information, and the role of social support. As a result of wanting to resolve the mental conflict of cognitive dissonance, people might either change their behavior or ignore information that goes against their desires and goals. For example, the smoker might either quit smoking or rationalize their smoking by saying other habits are just as dangerous.

Also, speaking up for another person could improve a group or culture overall. Defense mechanisms can restore psychological homeostasis by ignoring or deflecting sudden increases in impulse, affect, and https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/alcohol-and-dopamine-how-does-it-affect-your-brain/ emotion. Defense mechanisms can provide a mental time out to adjust to sudden changes in reality or self-image. Defenses can mitigate sudden unresolvable conflict with important people, living or dead.

Assessing Cognitive Dissonance: 2 Questionnaires

It doesn’t just influence how you feel; it also motivates you to take action to reduce feelings of discomfort. The inconsistency between what people believe and how they behave motivates them to engage in actions that will help minimize feelings of discomfort. People attempt to relieve this tension in different ways, such as by rejecting, explaining away, or avoiding new information. Notice that dissonance theory does not state that these modes of dissonance reduction will actually work, only that individuals who are in a state of cognitive dissonance will take steps to reduce the extent of their dissonance. This produces a feeling of mental discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance. While cognitive dissonance is often described as something widely and regularly experienced, efforts to capture it in studies don’t always work, so it could be less common than has been assumed.

• Admitting we were wrong requires some self-reflection—which involves living with the dissonance for a while rather than jumping immediately to a self-justification.
• If a voluntary experience that has cost a lot of effort turns out badly, the dissonance is reduced by redefining the experience as interesting.
• They extended connectionist reasoning to define attitudes as a form of constraint satisfaction.
• Study participants who complete an uninteresting task have been found to rate the task as more enjoyable if they were first asked to tell someone else it was enjoyable—an effect attributed to cognitive dissonance.
• Notably, van Veen found reliable anterior insula activations, but relatively small DPLFC activations.

Technological advances are allowing psychologists to study the biomechanics of cognitive dissonance. The COVID-19 pandemic, an extreme public health crisis, cases rose to the hundred million and deaths at nearly four million worldwide. Reputable health organizations such as Lyu and Wehby studied the effects of wearing a face mask on the spread of COVID-19. When the COVID-19 vaccine was eventually released to the public, this only made the resistance stronger. Cognitive dissonance and the way we cope with it regularly affect our relationships, too, both positively and negatively.

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Cognitive dissonance is powerful because we are highly driven to eliminate it. Considering the larger spectrum, cultural marginality could also be mentioned under the umbrella of the interpersonal level. According to Thorstein Veblen, the intellectual success of the Jews in Europe is related to their cultural marginality. In Freud’s case, he had to leave Austria because of Nazi oppression. Before his life in France, Picasso lived in Spain and kept his ties with his native country.

It can become problematic if it leads you to justify or rationalize behaviors that could be harmful. Or you may get caught up in trying to rationalize cognitive dissonance treatment the dissonance to the point of stressing yourself out. You tell yourself it’s OK since you’re taking care of your health in other ways.

You still feel guilty, though, because you know it’s important to be active. Here’s a look at some everyday examples of cognitive dissonance and how you might come to terms with them. Sometimes, when you’re faced with difficult decisions in the moment, it’s best to take a break and revisit it later when all parties have processed what’s happened. This is especially true if you’re caught up in a toxic work environment. The effects may relate to the discomfort of the dissonance itself or the defense mechanisms a person adopts to deal with it. If that same person believed the COVID-19 pandemic was real but refused to wear a mask, their values and behaviors would contradict each other.

• This incompatibility (dissonance) can happen when you do something that goes against one of your values.
• The alternative will be to double down, ignore the error, and wait, as Trump is waiting, for the “miracle” of the virus disappearing.
• Therapists aim to help their patients by understanding and changing their attitudes, emotions, or behaviors.
• This dynamic is playing out during the pandemic among the many people who refuse to wear masks or practice social distancing.