Sometimes learning new information can lead to feelings of cognitive dissonance. For example, if you engage in a behavior that you later learn is harmful, it can lead to feelings of discomfort. People sometimes deal with this by finding ways to justify their behaviors or findings ways to discredit or ignore new information. A person with cognitive dissonance experiences mental conflict and may take steps to try to resolve it. This could include changes in behavior or attempts to ignore information that contradicts a goal or desire. For example, a smoker might quit smoking or instead rationalize their behavior by saying other habits are just as dangerous.

How to Reduce Cognitive Dissonance

Theoretically, dissonance may contribute to a variety of changes in behavior or beliefs. While cognitive dissonance is often described as something widely and regularly experienced, efforts to cognitive dissonance and addiction capture it in studies don’t always work, so it could be less common than has been assumed. People do not necessarily experience discomfort in response to every apparent contradiction in their thoughts and beliefs.

Recognizing, resolving, and releasing internal conflict

Socrates extolled that “An unexamined life is not worth living.” In other words, challenge and be skeptical of such answers if you find yourself falling back on them. Another example can be seen in many people’s continuing to smoke two or three packs of cigarettes a day, even though research shows they are shortening their own lives. In a subsequent analysis, Stone & Cooper (2001) challenged Thibodeau & Aronson’s analysis of hypocrisy. We argued that hypocrisy creates dissonance because people’s recall and awareness of their past behavior is, by definition, the recollection of a potential aversive consequence. Recalling the decision not to use condoms is, in itself, remembering when you freely behaved in a way that could have caused AIDS or unwanted pregnancy.

Cognitive Dissonance and the Discomfort of Holding Conflicting Beliefs

It helps people get started on the “psychological work” needed to reduce inconsistencies. However, the research shows that cognitive dissonance can have positive effects. When we process the dissonance and understand why it’s happening, we can make changes that bring us into alignment. Dr. Stacey Diane Arañez Litam (she, her, siya) is a licensed professional clinical counselor and supervisor, a national certified counselor, a certified clinical mental health counselor, as well as a board-certified diplomate and sexologist. She is an immigrant and identifies as a Chinese and Filipina American woman. Her clinical work, research expertise and advocacy for supporting BIPOC communities, LGBTQ+ folx, as well as human sex trafficking survivors have garnered national praise and notoriety.

• One answer to that question is provided by the Action-Orientation Model (Harmon-Jones, 1999).
• Recalling the decision not to use condoms is, in itself, remembering when you freely behaved in a way that could have caused AIDS or unwanted pregnancy.
• This paper examines the origins of the theory and the controversies it engendered.
• For example, behaving in ways that are not aligned with your personal values may result in intense feelings of discomfort.

People with a higher need for consistency and certainty in their lives usually feel the effects of cognitive dissonance more than those who have a lesser need for such consistency. Resolving or reducing cognitive dissonance is not always an easy task — but it’s worth it. “It takes constant attention to work on ourselves, to continue to push to create better interactions with each other and more self-awareness,” Curry says. You can also lessen the chances of dissonance beginning in the first place if you practice being mindful, Noulas says.

ways to deal with the emotional vampires in your life

Unlike hypocrisy, cognitive dissonance threatens our identity and sense of self. That’s why it’s important to recognize what it is and what it feels like — if you don’t, then it will be that much harder to live an authentic life aligned with your personal values. Anyone can experience this uneasiness when their feelings don’t align with their actions, says Rachelle Scott, M.D., a psychiatrist and ​​medical director of Mental Health at Eden Health in New York. Dissonance comes up when we realize there are two things opposing each other,” she explains. To resolve cognitive dissonance, a person can aim to ensure that their actions are consistent with their values or vice versa. However, cognitive dissonance can also be a tool for personal and social change.

Health Conditions

This is exciting, because it means we’re always learning, but it can lead to cognitive dissonance. When we say “yes” to a choice, whether it’s as small as what to order for lunch or as big as where to live, we have to say “no” to something else. This can be a difficult decision when the choices feel equally good or equally bad. Cognitive dissonance is the psychological tension we feel as we try to reckon with two (or more) opposing pieces of information.

• It’s also been successfully employed to change an over reliance on online gaming, road rage, and many other negative behaviors.
• The other half were not given any choice about engaging in the difficult, embarrassing therapy.
• Being open to serendipity could be the secret to a life full of unexpected joys.
• The participants also witnessed the speaker admit that there had been occasions when she failed to follow her own advice – that is, she had forgotten or neglected to use sunscreen in the past.

After reading the reports about the various products, individuals rated the products again. Brehm (1956) was the first to investigate the relationship between dissonance and decision-making. The rub is that making a decision cuts off the possibility that you can enjoy the advantages of the unchosen alternative, yet it assures you that you must accept the disadvantages of the chosen alternative. It’s increasingly common for someone to be diagnosed with a condition such as ADHD or autism as an adult. A diagnosis often brings relief, but it can also come with as many questions as answers. Research into eating disorders and mass shooters reveals a common thread—overvalued ideas that are relished, amplified, and nurtured online.

In another, he wondered how people would feel if they noticed that their own behavior did not fit with social mores. In another, he wondered what people would experience if they found themselves behaving in ways that contradicted their own attitudes. Social comparison was an activity that people engaged in when they were confronted by a particular discrepancy in a particular circumstance. It occurred to Festinger that a social psychological theory needed to be broader than social comparison in order to accommodate the extraordinary number of circumstances in which people felt driven to avoid and reduce inconsistency.

The Drive Properties of Dissonance: Reality or Metaphor?

If a person finds themselves in a situation where they have to do something that they don’t agree with, they’ll experience discomfort. Since they can’t escape the action, they attempt to re-establish their reasons for doing it in a way that makes the action acceptable. Festinger proposed this hypothesis in his 1957 book, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance.