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. To deal with the feelings of discomfort then, they might find some way of rationalizing the conflicting cognition. For instance, they may justify their sedentary behavior by saying that their other healthy behaviors—like eating sensibly cognitive dissonance and addiction and occasionally exercising—make up for their largely sedentary lifestyle. When there are conflicts between cognitions (thoughts, beliefs, and opinions), people will take steps to reduce the dissonance and feelings of discomfort. Because people want to avoid discomfort, cognitive dissonance can have a wide range of effects. Dissonance can play a role in how we act, think, and make decisions.
The idea is, choosing something that is in opposition to how you feel or believe in will increase cognitive dissonance. Sometimes people can reduce dissonance by changing things in their environment—in particular, in their social environment. For example, someone who smokes might surround themselves with other people who smoke instead of with people who have disapproving https://ecosoberhouse.com/ attitudes about cigarettes. In others words, people sometimes cope with feelings of dissonance by surrounding themselves in “echo chambers” where their opinions are supported and validated by others. For participants who were not asked to lie, and for participants who lied in exchange for $20, they tended to report that the study indeed wasn’t very interesting.
Reducing the Importance of the Conflicting Belief
It can also be detrimental by rationalizing poor or unhealthy behavior. The degree to which your target audience experiences cognitive dissonance depends on several factors. How strong dissonance impacts an individual boils down to two key influences. We can sometimes feel pressured into making decisions or taking action because people around us are encouraging us in a certain direction. This article provides some examples of cognitive dissonance, discusses the signs, and offers some suggestions on how to cope with it.
- In his study of rumor belief, Festinger (1957) concluded that people always strive for an internal balance between personal motives that determine their behavior and information received from outside.
- Festinger argued that cognitive dissonance is more intense when a person holds many dissonant views and those views are important to them.
- To reduce their dissonance, the salesperson may justify their behavior by telling themselves that it is just a job, or that the product is not harmful.
- If that same person believes the COVID-19 pandemic is real but refuses to wear a mask, their values and behaviors would contradict each other.
This can prompt people to adopt certain defense mechanisms when they have to confront it. Read on to learn more about cognitive dissonance, including examples, signs a person might be experiencing it, causes, and how to resolve it. 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. Dissonance can also be experienced vicariously through people of a social group that we identify with.
In This Article Expand or collapse the “in this article” section Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Another person (who appeared to not be part of the original study) then asked participants to report on how interesting the study actually was. My desire to smoke was powerful, but at the same time I was afraid of trying it. Explore how presenting a misleading image of social and emotional wellness affects mental health. Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) conducted one of the first studies examining cognitive dissonance. These detailed, science-based exercises will equip you or your clients with tools to find new pathways to reduce suffering and more effectively cope with life stressors. The concept of cognitive dissonance is nicely explained in this YouTube video by social psychologist Andy Luttrell.