Cognitive Dissonance | Definition, 10 Signs and Examples

We all like to think of ourselves in certain ways. We may consider ourselves honest, hardworking, health-conscious, and self-sufficient. But our actions don't always align with what we believe about ourselves. And while everyone struggles with this, very few people know why and what the negative effects of it can be.

And even though it may seem like a trivial thing, there is a scientific explanation behind the guilt we carry with us when we didn't start our diet this Monday either. Let's find out together what it is!

What is cognitive dissonance? What does cognitive dissonance mean?

Cognitive dissonance is a term used to describe the mental discomfort that occurs when we hold two beliefs or values that are incompatible with each other. This inconsistency between what we think and how we behave can cause feelings of discomfort.

Cognitive process includes thinking, attitude, personal value, behavior, memory, knowledge, judgment, and problem solving. It also includes all conscious processes such as language, imagination, perception, and planning.

Cognitive dissonance theory

Cognitive dissonance theory was developed in the 1950s by a social psychologist named Leon Festinger. Until then, psychologists believed that people's actions resulted from their core values and beliefs in a unidirectional and somewhat rigid way. Thus, the consensus was that people's behaviors were determined by and consistent with their values and beliefs.

Festinger challenged this notion when he stated that people can experience a mismatch between their beliefs and their behaviors. Furthermore, the discomfort caused by this mismatch could be diminished by rationalizing the behavior or adjusting beliefs to match the behavior.

Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance has three components: internal conflict, the discomfort caused by the internal conflict, and the attempt to resolve this discomfort. Furthermore, there are several ways in which people can attempt to resolve their discomfort. These include changing their actions, adjusting their beliefs, and altering their perceptions of their actions.

For example, if someone cheats on their spouse, they may regret the infidelity and decide never to do it again. If they can keep their promise, this is an example of changing their action. Alternatively, they may begin to think differently about marriage and fidelity, which is an example of adjusting their beliefs.

They may also rationalize their affair by saying that their spouse has been acting distant lately and has not put any effort into their relationship. This attempt to rationalize conflictual behavior is an example of perception modification.

To reach this discovery, Festinger experimented with the following counterintuitive scenario:

In short, he asked participants to shuffle nails on a board for an hour. When a participant finished this repetitive and boring task, he asked them to tell the person waiting outside that the task was fascinating. To do this, he offered one dollar to half of the subjects and twenty dollars – which was a fairly large sum in the 1950s – to the other half. The participants who received twenty dollars associated the money with the task and did not experience cognitive dissonance. On the other hand, the participants who received only one dollar felt the need to justify the fact that they had done a meaningless task for an entire hour. As a result, they were more willing to modify their perceptions of their action – in this case, by saying that the task was indeed fun and interesting.

Another influential experiment was conducted by JW Brehm. He asked participants to evaluate eight household products, such as a toaster, a coffee maker, a radio, etc.

Then, they were given the option to choose between two equally attractive products or between a highly desirable product and a less desirable one. After participants chose a product, they were asked to re-evaluate the desirability of the products.

The second time, participants who had to choose between two desirable products gave their choice a higher rating and the other product a lower rating. While participants in the other group did not really change their ratings. These results implied that participants who had to make a difficult choice changed their beliefs about the desirability of the products to justify their choices.

A long-term solution

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Causes of cognitive dissonance

Cognitive dissonance can occur for many reasons, but some of the most common causes are the following:

Receiving new information

New information can shed a lot of light on how we really feel about a topic. It can also force us to confront things we may never have thought about before.

Let’s say you’ve been a long-time customer of a certain online clothing store, but one day you realize that the brand has been accused of serious labor exploitation. You don’t like what you’re hearing, but it’s your favorite clothing store. Plus, it has some really low prices, so you’re going to keep ordering clothes, despite what you’ve heard. But then guilt sets in and you’re worried about supporting human exploitation. Now you have to decide:

Do you support that business or buy from somewhere else?

Social pressures

We can also experience cognitive dissonance when we are in situations where friends, family members, or coworkers behave in a way that doesn't align with our beliefs. And because of this, we may feel pressured to allow those actions to continue or participate in those actions—and this can create significant discomfort, so we end up wondering how we should feel about the situation.

To be forced to make a decision

When faced with conflict, we may experience cognitive dissonance if we make a decision to lessen the potential conflict between ourselves and other people, but it is not necessarily a decision we fully believe in. When faced with a deadline, we might even save up to complete a task, but then experience discomfort when it is done because we value the hard work.

Signs of cognitive dissonance

The truth is, most of us have experienced dissonance at some point. Unfortunately, though, there's no flashing red light to let you know when you're out of alignment with your values—it's all internal.

To help you in this process, here are some signs that you are experiencing cognitive dissonance:

You are often defensive about your choices;
Are there conversations or topics you avoid?

You are angry, irritable or frustrated;
You feel jealous or bitter about other people's good news, or you feel obligated to explain why it didn't happen to you;
You spend a lot of time or energy justifying your actions, even when no one questions them;
People who know you well are surprised by your statements or behavior;
You try to convince others that your way of thinking is the correct one;
You minimize the potentially dangerous or unhealthy consequences of your behavior;
You experience feelings of discomfort when talking about yourself or to someone who disagrees with you;
You react to gentle, constructive or perceived criticism with hostility;

The effects of cognitive dissonance

Cognitive dissonance can affect your mental health and relationships with the people around you if you don't take steps to treat it.

These constant contradictions can create negative emotional states, such as guilt, shame, and regret. Furthermore, they increase the likelihood that a person will use defense mechanisms, such as rationalization, which can be ineffective in the long run. Cognitive dissonance can become disruptive to one's sense of self and quality of life.

Some possible effects of cognitive dissonance may also include:

Low self-esteem: Someone may develop low self-esteem because they act in ways that do not align with their beliefs. This further fuels shame and a desire to hide from others. For example, someone who works for a corporation that violates their personal values may avoid friendships and romantic relationships because they do not want to talk about what they do at work.
Blame transfer: An individual who is unaware of how cognitive dissonance affects them may shift blame to manage negative feelings. If a parent's child cheats on a test, the parent might blame the school or teacher for allowing a culture of cheating that has corrupted their child. This removes any blame from the parent, in order to reduce their dissonance.
Emotional dysregulation: The more cognitive dissonance someone experiences, the greater the intensity of negative emotional states and the likelihood of becoming emotionally dysregulated. If a person attends business school because their parents want them to, rather than pursuing their true interest in social work, they may be more anxious and irritable compared to someone whose studies align with their interests.
Limited worldview: To avoid information that contradicts their own beliefs, an individual experiencing cognitive dissonance may become increasingly withdrawn from the world. They may only seek out people and ideas that confirm what they already believe to be true. As a result, a person becomes more susceptible to confirmation bias. This could manifest as a person avoiding having friends from diverse backgrounds because it causes dissonance.

Examples of cognitive dissonance

Regular exercise

You promote the importance of regular exercise. You value your health, try to be mindful of the foods you eat, and know how important it is to get enough sleep at night.

However, you skip exercise and sit at your desk all day, forget to commit to eating nutritious foods and getting enough sleep, and later feel guilty. This is an example of cognitive dissonance manifesting itself in the form of guilt.

Smoking and alcohol consumption

You know that smoking is bad for your health and you understand all the negative effects of tobacco on your body and the people around you. You may try to quit smoking for a while, but the urge to smoke increases as you become addicted to nicotine and you end up smoking anyway.

The same thing happens with alcohol.

Workplace productivity

Doing your job well and being productive at work is a must, but you can get distracted by surfing the internet or catching up on TV during work hours. Even though you're doing your job, you know you could have done more. You feel guilty about your behavior and worry that you might get caught, but you still tend to keep doing it out of boredom.

Impulse buying

You can be an impulsive buyer and justify your purchases by saying you need them to feel good. Even if you discover that the product is defective or does not meet your expectations, you can fight that conflict within yourself to convince yourself that the purchase was necessary.

To be honest

You feel like you are an honest person, but you may occasionally lie to protect yourself from situations that could make you look bad (for example, being late for work or avoiding something you don't want to do, like going to a party). Later, you feel conflicted, thinking that you should have been honest, but still, you don't tell the truth.

Meat consumption

You consider yourself an animal lover and don't like the thought of killing animals, but you continue to eat meat. This condition is called the meat paradox.

Peer pressure

When you see a close friend stealing something and you strongly believe that the theft is unethical, but you are still hesitant to report it because you fear you might lose the friendship. This causes a cognitive dissonance between being loyal to your friend and doing what you believe is right.

What can you do to alleviate cognitive dissonance?

Your brain will try to resolve cognitive dissonance on its own, but that doesn't mean you have no say in the process. Recognizing and addressing dissonance can be difficult, but it's an important step toward improving your overall well-being.

Here are four tips for reducing cognitive dissonance:

Check your feelings.

Cognitive dissonance is usually accompanied by a physical sensation. When you feel a physical or psychological discomfort, write it down. You don't necessarily have to address it right away. Just keep it in mind for when you have time to discuss it with a professional.

Don't run away from her.

Instead of feeling defensive, explore the information the response provides you. When did you have this feeling, what was your first inclination? When did it happen? What triggered it? Understanding what caused the dissonance can help you figure out the best way to address it.

Determine what you want to change

Dissonance doesn't happen so you can blame yourself. And it doesn't tell you to do one thing or another. It gives you the information you need to come to terms with your decisions and understand why you made them.

Be assertive about your needs

Set healthy boundaries from the beginning and don't give up on them if someone crosses a line. By being assertive about your values, you can minimize ongoing conflict from the start.

Postpone the discussion if necessary

Sometimes, when you're faced with difficult decisions in the moment, it's best to take a break and revisit the topic later, when all parties have processed what happened. This is especially true if you're caught in a toxic work environment.

Take action

Sometimes new information leads to cognitive dissonance, but this also allows you to take new actions that you may not have considered taking before.

Question your beliefs

At the end of the day, it's good to have what you believe. That's how we grow and evolve and become better people. When you discover new information and are faced with the uncomfortable decision of making decisions, you adopt a positive perspective.

The positive side of cognitive dissonance

Conform of this article from scientificamerican.com , researchers used MRI to identify exactly what happens in our brains when we experience cognitive dissonance. This allowed them to see the key regions of the brain that are activated when we are affected by it. The two regions that were activated are:

Posterior part of the medial frontal cortex (pMFC, the most involved area): this plays an important role in avoiding aversive outcomes, a built-in survival instinct.
Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC): this processes emotions and becomes more active when we are upset or angry.

Thus, according to the study mentioned in the article, we can conclude that there is also a positive side to facing cognitive dissonance, as it actually helps us stay mentally healthy and happy. It can also make us feel satisfied with our choices, especially when they cannot be easily reversed.

Resolving dissonance can help us prevent ourselves from making bad choices or motivate us to make good choices. The desire to be at peace with our decisions might even inspire us to go for a run or engage in other positive behaviors.

Conclusion

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