Cognitive Dissonance Examples: 5 Ways It Pops Up In Everyday Life

Cognitive dissonance is a psychological state of discomfort that occurs when your behaviors and beliefs do not align. An example of cognitive dissonance includes smoking even though you know it’s bad for you and feeling guilty because of it. Often, people try to reduce cognitive dissonance by rationalizing https://ecosoberhouse.com/ their behaviors, hiding their choices from others, avoiding thinking about the issue, or minimizing the impact. But if you learn how to recognize cognitive dissonance, you can deal with it in an effective way. Not everyone practices what they preach—and that could trigger poor mental health.

But our actions don’t always line up with what we think of ourselves. “You’re more likely to feel guilty if you’re doing something that goes against your values,” notes Dr. Prewitt. Cognitive dissonance and the way we cope with it regularly affect our relationships, too, both positively and negatively. If patients are provided with the opportunity to co-design aspects of their therapy, they may be more likely to act in line with their choices by reaching their therapeutic goals. Koller and Salzberger (2007) developed an eight-item consumer behavior scale. Their questionnaire includes items regarding the decision-making process before and after the purchase.

The effects of cognitive dissonance

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. The anxiety caused by cognitive dissonance can be alleviated in several ways. Second, the person could attempt to convince other people that their beliefs are not valid.

Alternatively, people may take steps to try to resolve the inconsistency. It is possible to resolve cognitive dissonance by either changing one’s behavior or changing one’s beliefs so they are consistent with each other. When you do something or behave a certain way that goes against your values, you may experience cognitive dissonance.

Impact of Cognitive Dissonance

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. However, cognitive dissonance can also be a tool for personal and social change. Drawing a person’s attention to the dissonance between their behavior and their values may increase their awareness of the inconsistency and empower them to act. Cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon that occurs when a person holds two contradictory beliefs at the same time. Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort a person feels when their behavior does not align with their values or beliefs.

Understanding your beliefs and values behind the inconsistencies is an opportunity to develop deeper self-knowledge. In that sense, the experience of cognitive dissonance is an opportunity to learn and grow, as long as we deal with it constructively and respond in a way that we choose and is beneficial. The concept of cognitive dissonance is nicely explained in this YouTube video by social psychologist Andy Luttrell. Dissonance can also be experienced vicariously through people of a social group that we identify with.

How to Recognize Cognitive Dissonance to Help You Make Better Decisions — and Better Yourself

For example, a person may have to do something they disagree with at work. Here’s what you need to know about cognitive dissonance, and how to seek the proper care. We benefit, though, from approaching these inconsistencies with curiosity and grace, even when we want to change them. Developing the self-awareness to notice and question the dissonance often resolves it. Social psychologists have uncovered dozens of cognitive biases, such as self-serving bias, unconscious bias or implicit bias, confirmation bias, fundamental attribution error, and the sunk-cost fallacy.

• Accepting this helps explain the rise of ideologies that promise you can have it all.
• However, new information such as “research has not proved definitely that smoking causes lung cancer” may reduce the dissonance.
• Life is filled with decisions, and decisions (as a general rule) arouse dissonance.

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. Cognitive dissonance can make people feel uneasy and uncomfortable. This is particularly true if the disparity between their beliefs and behaviors involves something that is central to their sense of self.

Stop beating yourself up! Learn how to forgive yourself to move forward

That’s because making a choice doesn’t automatically make the positive attributes of the other choice go away. Heider’s Balance Theory, on the other hand, emphasizes the desire for balanced relations among triads of entities (like people and attitudes), with imbalances prompting changes in attitudes to restore balance. Both theories address cognitive consistency, cognitive dissonance and addiction but in different contexts. There are also individual differences in whether or not people act as this theory predicts. Many people seem able to cope with considerable dissonance and not experience the tensions the theory predicts. However, new information such as “research has not proved definitely that smoking causes lung cancer” may reduce the dissonance.

• When our friends or partners act contrary to our beliefs and values, we perceive dissonance.
• Cognitive dissonance can make people feel stress, embarrassment, sadness, regret, or shame.
• Or, third, they can outright dismiss the opposing view as invalid.
• In order to explain this phenomenon, psychologist Leon Festinger presented the idea of cognitive dissonance.