- By admin
- In Sober Living
What Is Cognitive Dissonance?
Because they feel uncomfortable with a behavior that doesn’t reflect what they believe in or stand for. cognitive dissonance addiction theory suggests that people naturally want to live in a state of cognitive harmony – when beliefs and actions are in line. Let me repeat that cognitive dissonances often lead to discarding the contradicting knowledge. Watch carefully a usual conversation among people, not between a student and her Professor, but a normal conversation between regular people. Usually people do not listen to each other and immediately discard what they just have heard.
Science-Based Ways To Apply Positive CBT
In recent years, psychologists have pointed out that many psychology studies recruit participants from Western countries (North America and Europe) and that doing so neglects the experience of people who live in non-Western cultures. In fact, psychologists who study cultural psychology have found that many phenomena that were once assumed to be universal may actually be unique to Western countries. For example, since individuals typically want to see themselves as ethical people, acting unethically would produce higher levels of dissonance. The average person probably wouldn’t fault you for telling the lie—$500 is a lot of money and for most people would probably be enough to justify a relatively inconsequential lie. However, if you were paid only a couple of dollars, you might have more trouble justifying your lie, and feel less comfortable about doing so.
cognitive dissonance
- Sometimes, new information leads to cognitive dissonance, but that also allows you to take new actions you may not have thought about taking before.
- 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.
- You get the job wrapped up on time, but it’s not the quality of work you pride yourself on and you’re embarrassed about it.
- We may engage in behaviors or adopt attitudes to help relieve the discomfort caused by the conflict.
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 can motivate people to try to feel better. 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. 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. Theoretically, dissonance may contribute to a variety of changes in behavior or beliefs.
How We Tend to Deal With the Cognitive Dissonance That Happens to Us
Cognitive dissonance may help you make positive changes in your life, but it can also be destructive, especially when you look for ways to rationalize and continue harmful behaviors. If you’re experiencing cognitive dissonance, it’s best to ask yourself if the strategies you’re using to cope with it will result in a positive long-term outcome. Think back to the example of the buddy who told the tasteless joke. This same scenario could be about a buddy who has starkly different political beliefs or maybe is unkind to their spouse or too stern with their children.
How Cognitive Dissonance Feels
The next step is to identify the cause of inconsistencies in our thoughts. Understanding your beliefs and values behind the inconsistencies is an opportunity to develop deeper self-knowledge. Imagine confronting a sunbather with the information that excessive sun exposure is the leading cause of skin cancer.
- When you receive new information that challenges your beliefs – like learning that the owner of the local bakery isn’t a good employer – you can feel cognitive dissonance.
- A good example is the prospect of embarrassing ourselves in front of others, such as by forgetting our words during a speech.
- You feel the tension between who you believe your future partner must be and how much you enjoy spending time with this person.
- Discrepancy between an attitude and a behavior – eating a doughnut while thinking of reducing calorie intake – leads to psychological discomfort called cognitive dissonance (Harmon-Jones, 2019).
- In order to hit it, you take some shortcuts you wouldn’t normally take.
Dissociating meat from its animal origins: A systematic literature review
- It can, hence, be argued that they had a clear association between meat and animals.
- To get a clear picture of what cognitive dissonance is, it helps to first grasp what happens when that tension (or “dissonance”) occurs.
- Patients are likely to feel uncomfortable when dissonant thoughts are discussed, which can impede their ability to think constructively.
- True statements have to compete with lies, distortions, or conspiracy theories for public acceptance.
- The intensity of the discomfort that comes from cognitive dissonance depends somewhat on personality.
The intensity of the discomfort that comes from cognitive dissonance depends somewhat on personality. People who are flexible enough to adjust their thoughts or live with “gray areas” may not have a strong response when they notice the discrepancies. “Some people may experience it more intensely or frequently if they have a high need for consistency in their lives,” Dr. Leikam says. And recognizing and addressing those negative thoughts or emotions is important. For instance, to reduce their discomfort, people can try not to connect meat to animals (Graça et al., 2014; Rothgerber, 2013) and avoid situations that may disrupt this dissociation (Holm, 2018; Schröder & McEachern, 2004).
Cognitive Dissonance: True Lies and False Truths
- If the cognitions are relevant, they can be in agreement (consistent) or disagreement (inconsistent) with one another (Festinger, 1957).
- Cognitive dissonance leads to the motivation to reduce the dissonance (Festinger, 1957).
- When the boundaries between reality and fantasy are blurred, people can be confused, anxious, or mistrustful.
- It can also further strain your relationships with others, especially if you’re having cognitive dissonance related to what someone else is saying or doing.
- We do not notice negative emotions related to minor everyday choices, because we have a lot of emotions to overcome them.
