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You’ve heard about recommended weekly exercise minutes and recognize the importance of physical activity. You’ve had a busy week, though, so you indulge in the convenience of take-out for dinner, even though you know it’s precisely the type of food you need to avoid. For example, a person who wishes to protect other people and who believes that the COVID-19 pandemic is real might wear a mask in public. If you are in an energy-vampire-relationship, you need strategies to protect yourself. Once you are free from your energy vampire, you need to reduce dissonance in order to begin healing. So they say things like “No one will know,” “Everyone does it,” “It’s not that bad,” “She is worse than I am,” I’m not a bad person; I only stole this because I needed it more,” etc.
- We do not offer individual medical advice, diagnosis or treatment plans.
- Imagine confronting a sunbather with the information that excessive sun exposure is the leading cause of skin cancer.
- In order to explain this phenomenon, psychologist Leon Festinger presented the idea of cognitive dissonance.
- Or maybe you learn a new piece of information that disagrees with a long-standing belief or opinion.
- When the COVID-19 vaccine was eventually released to the public, this only made the resistance stronger.
- The original book by Leon Festinger is a staple on every (social) psychologist’s bookshelf.
If the cognitions are relevant, they can be in agreement (consistent) or disagreement (inconsistent) with one another (Festinger, 1957). You can also lessen the chances of dissonance beginning in the first place if you practice being mindful, Noulas says. So, for instance, when conflict or tension arises, take the time to pause and think through your situation and your feelings. “It’s important to be in touch with your own value system and know when your thinking is being driven by emotions,” says Corrine Leikam, PsyD, an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. “The tension that gets created when you hold certain beliefs or values but act in a way that conflicts with your belief systems generates an internal discomfort that most people have to subconsciously work very hard to ignore,” Curry says.
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To strengthen the belief, new converts would be needed, which requires proselytizing. Indeed, this also occurred, with some group members proselytizing their beliefs after the disconfirmation. Notably, this proselytizing solution reflects not only effort justification but also the motivation to create a shared reality with others that their beliefs are true.
Your brain will attempt to resolve cognitive dissonance on its own — but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have any say over the process. It can be tough to recognize and address dissonance, but it’s an important step to improving your overall wellness. Cognitive dissonance can affect our cognitive biases, and vice versa. Typically, when we feel psychological dissonance, it’s because one of these patterns of thought is being challenged. We may develop these biases to avoid discomfort or changing our behavior. Have you ever felt a sense of tension in your mind, but you weren’t sure why or what was causing it?
Some Cognitive Dissonance Can Help Us Grow
When we develop integrity, we are simply lining up our actions with our beliefs and consistently acting on them. The truth is, most of us have experienced dissonance at one time or another. Unfortunately, though, there’s no flashing red light that tells you when you’re not in alignment with your values — it’s all internal.
- Self-awareness and mindfulness practice empower us to notice inconsistencies in our thinking and find the space between dissonance triggers and our reaction so we can choose a response we are truly happy with.
- But you can feel caught off guard when those values and beliefs are shaken by social pressures, the presence of new information or having to make a rushed last-minute decision.
- Typically, when we feel psychological dissonance, it’s because one of these patterns of thought is being challenged.
The justification is typically achieved by changing their attitudes and beliefs so that the new attitudes and beliefs are consistent with and justify the decision that has been made. Notably, the resulting attitude change can be long lasting (Sharot, Fleming, Yu, Koster, & Dolan, 2012). By nature, then, we treatment for cognitive dissonance may be rationalizing beings, ready to justify what we have done after the fact. Attending specialized therapy sessions such as psychotherapy or cognitive behavioral therapy can help individuals who struggle with cognitive dissonance work through emotional difficulties and disruptive or negative thoughts.
Potential Pitfalls of Cognitive Dissonance
For example, when making a difficult decision, individuals show attitude change that justifies the decision. In this case, individuals who face such a decision are conflicted because not all beliefs are consistent with the decision. For example, they may have beliefs favoring the option that is rejected. The individuals are therefore motivated to reduce the conflict by justifying the decision they have made.
Articles are extensively reviewed by our team of clinical experts (therapists and psychiatrists of various specialties) to ensure content is accurate and on par with current industry standards. Cognitive dissonance can even influence how people feel about and view themselves, leading to negative feelings of self-esteem and self-worth. Cognitive dissonance can be caused by feeling forced to do something, learning new information, or when faced with a decision between two similar choices. Changing a behavior to align it with your thoughts and values can reduce or eliminate cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance can result in a desire for change in an effort to reduce mental discomfort.
