What is cognitive dissonance
The introduction above sums it up. In other words, it refers to having conflicting values, feelings, beliefs or behavior.
But what is it like to actually experience? Cognitive dissonance tends to make us feel very uncomfortable, sometimes even anxious - almost as if we don't really know or understand ourselves.
So, when we experience dissonance, we have a tendency to change one of the contradictory things in order to get rid of this incredibly unpleasant feeling.
For example, we may try to suppress a feeling or try to convince ourselves and others that we don't really believe two contradictory statements.
Possible reasons
For what reason do we carry out actions that do not fit into our system of knowledge or values?
Let us describe two typical situations when this happens.
- An individual encounters an event that he did not expect or new knowledge. For example, a person is rushing to the airport and suddenly his car breaks down. Or, a woman who considers an automatic transmission the most convenient receives information that such a system is extremely inefficient.
- Nothing in this world can be either only good or only bad. Every thing, phenomenon, event, person has two sides. When making a choice in favor of one of the available options, we a priori choose the alternative that has “black”, “negative” aspects. For example, when investing free funds in a chosen bank, and not in a competing bank, we understand that such a deposit does not give us 100% guarantees.
Among the theoretical causes of dissonance are the following:
- the contradiction between the concepts and principles that a person has formed;
- the discrepancy between such personal beliefs and the norms of morality and ethics prevailing in society;
- personal reluctance (revolutionary ideas) to act in accordance with established norms;
- discrepancy between the new information received and existing experience or knowledge.
Conclusion: Cognitive dissonance is not an abstract phenomenon; we can experience it every day.
History of cognitive dissonance
You might be wondering where exactly this idea comes from and what evidence we have to believe it reflects something real.
The theory of cognitive dissonance first emerged in the work of psychologist Leon Festinger, who was particularly interested in the study of cults.
He coined the term "cognitive dissonance" when he saw how members of one particular cult dealt with their flood beliefs, which were actively refuted.
Members less interested in the cult are likely to simply reconsider their beliefs and admit that they have been misled.
However, dedicated cult members often found ways to "get around" the truth. They will manipulate the facts to show that they were right all along.
From Festinger's work, psychologists have concluded that we all have a desire to harmoniously hold on to all our feelings, beliefs, attitudes, and values—and that we engage in significant mental gymnastics to make this happen.
Theory of the phenomenon
The cognitive dissonance
The American psychologist Leon Festinger was the first to lay the foundations of the theory of cognitive dissonance. He correctly noted that the brain needs internal consistency, and an imbalance between consciousness and action causes rejection.
Festinger's teaching was based on two main postulates:
- two human knowledges can come into irreconcilable contradiction with each other;
- It is common for a normal psyche to eliminate these contradictions.
Elimination of cognitive dissonance is possible, according to L. Festinger, by several methods:
- A person adjusts his principles, knowledge, concepts, changes them.
- Behavior and actions change.
- Information that leads to antiharmony is not allowed to go deep inside; the person tries to distance himself from it as much as possible.
The psychologist demonstrates his favorite example of getting rid of cognitive dissonance using the example of people who smoke.
Almost all smokers experience dissonance: they are well aware that nicotine is harmful and can lead to serious illness, and yet they continue to smoke. A person is constantly under stress: he does what he is afraid to do. To avoid stressful situations, you can do one of three things:
- The most logical and correct thing is to get rid of the habit.
- Convince yourself that smoking is not so dangerous, and all the talk about its dangers is nonsense.
- Completely ignore commercials, inscriptions on packs, i.e. all “incoming” information about fatal diseases caused by habit.
Festinger argued that cognitive dissonance can completely change a person’s behavior or internal attitudes and is therefore a stimulant for personality development.
Changes in human behavior according to Festinegr can occur in two ways:
- To eliminate contradictions, we do things that do not fit into the system of our principles. Then our morality and ethics will suffer, and the personality can thus “roll back” in its development.
- We can make a difficult decision for ourselves, find ourselves “between two fires.” Any course of action for a person becomes both good and bad and requires sacrifice.
As Festinger’s followers later established experimentally, the decision that a person makes for himself will be justified as the only correct one.
This is how the psyche works! We strive to “whitewash” our choice . Important!
Based on experiments, it was proven that the adopted course of action is ultimately regarded by a person as the only correct one and means “good”.
This was stated by Festinger’s student Brem; after accepting the option, its subjective attractiveness increases significantly and is already regarded as the only correct one. For example, a person always believed that he wanted to live in a private house and saved money to purchase it.
At the time of selecting housing, he read a lot of information about how living in an apartment is much more convenient and easier: less hassle, less financial investment. A person begins to rush around in his choice, but if he buys a city apartment, then for many years he will change his beliefs about which housing he likes best.
Congruence - what is it in psychology?
How to Know If You Have Cognitive Dissonance
In addition to the smoking case described above, below are common examples where you might be experiencing cognitive dissonance. Here are the main examples:
- Telling yourself that you will switch to a new diet or exercise regimen every day, despite not having historically done so, and knowing that you haven't changed anything.
- Drinking, smoking, or overeating while believing it is bad for you. Any potentially harmful habit can be stuck here.
- The belief that someone is a very close friend, but also the feeling that you cannot trust them with highly personal information. This is a particularly common type of social dissonance.
- Desire and fear of major life changes, such as marriage, a new job, or starting a family.
Definition of the concept
Cognitive dissonance - what is it in psychology? In simple words, it is a mental state in which a person experiences discomfort associated with internal contradiction. The name is derived from two Latin words: cognitio, which translates as “cognition, knowledge,” and dissonantia, which means “inconsistency.” Thus, cognitive dissonance is a conflict that arises between reality and knowledge (experience, beliefs, values) of a person. This is something that does not fit into the system of ideas about the world, people, and the structure of things.
Cognitive dissonance comes in different forms. For example, if a person looks at a green square, and is told that it is a red circle, then an internal inconsistency arises in the subject’s consciousness. Or dissonance arises in a situation when a friend tells the whole world his friend’s secret. This behavior does not correspond to his ideas about friendship.
In some cases, cognitive misalignment takes the form of moral dilemmas. For example, when a doctor needs to save the life of a terrorist or when a psychologist learns from a client that he has already planned someone's murder. On the one hand, the doctor took the Hippocratic oath, and the psychologist is obliged to keep the client’s secret. On the other hand, both patients are dangerous to society, and their actions do not fit into the system of values and morals of specialists.
In a state of cognitive dissonance, a person experiences discomfort. It manifests itself as anxiety and tension. It seems to a person that he has absolutely no control over his life and is in danger. In some cases, cognitive dissonance is transformed into a protracted internal conflict, for example, when a person every day goes against himself, family, friends, society (“This is not how my mother raised me,” “This is not what I dreamed of,” “This is not how I imagined it.” own life").
Note! The alignment of actions, thoughts, desires, needs and beliefs is extremely important for mental health. It is important that everything in a person’s inner world is harmonious, and every element of the inner is logically and appropriately combined with the outer world.
Causes of cognitive dissonance
So, what actually causes cognitive and emotional dissonance? Why does it occur to us in some situations, but not in others?
Conflict is a common denominator, but that conflict can take many different forms. Here are three of the most common triggers for cognitive dissonance.
Submitting to others
The first type of scenario involves “forced submission” - yielding to the pressure of other people.
If you are forced to do something that you secretly disapprove of or don't believe in, you will experience cognitive dissonance because you are not acting in accordance with your values.
There will be a conflict between the fact that you didn't want to do something and the fact that you did it anyway.
And since you can't change your consent, you're much more likely to try to change your beliefs.
Research consistently shows that people who experience dissonance due to pressure from others end up acquiring values that reflect what they did under pressure.
As surprising as it may sound, we actually give up on our beliefs more often than cope with discomfort.
Making decisions
Second, think about how many decisions we have to make every day. All of them can cause cognitive dissonance.
For example, imagine choosing between living in a great new place and staying close to your friends and family.
Whatever happens, it will cause dissonance, since in any case you will miss something important - a great opportunity for your career or your loved ones. Making any decision forces you to give up something.
Decision-based dissonance is the subject of much psychological research, which has shown that people work very hard to reduce dissonance in such cases.
The most common way is to try to exaggerate the benefits of the chosen solution and downplay the losses associated with what was abandoned.
Achievements of goals
A third common clue to dissonance is achievements that took a long time to complete.
The longer we've invested in something, the more pressure we have to view it as positive and beneficial.
Otherwise, we are faced with a painful cognitive dissonance between our knowledge that we have “wasted” a huge chunk of time and the fact that we actually regret the effort.
In most cases, we will try to convince ourselves that we have done something extremely valuable and made the right choice.
Another way to reduce cognitive dissonance is to downplay the time and effort required.
We may dismiss these efforts by saying that it doesn't matter if the final project is unimpressive because we didn't use many of our resources to make it happen.
Examples of psychological dissonance from life
It’s good if the situation that plunges you into cognitive dissonance does not concern you personally. I saw it, scratched the back of my head, and moved on. It is much worse if life circumstances put you in a situation of dissonance (what is this?). The collision of the base and the superstructure, the desired and the actual, life principles and the demands of the external environment is sometimes so contradictory that it can drive a person into a deep dead end.
For the first time a person consciously encounters this in family and school. There are many examples. “Smoking is harmful, if I see you, I’ll whip you,” says dad, blowing smoke rings. “You can’t take someone else’s,” my mother says, bringing a couple of packages of printer paper home from work.
“It’s not good to cheat,” they both say, and push the bag under the seat so as not to pay for luggage. A child, for whom parental authority is initially inviolable, begins an attack of cognitive dissonance - this means that he cannot make a choice.
Subsequently, the parents are surprised - the child, they say, is completely out of control, does not respect, and is deaf to educational measures of influence. And this is precisely the consequences of dissonance, which left its mark on the child’s fragile psyche.
If an adult, faced with a contradictory situation, shrugs his shoulders, twirls his finger at his temple, laughs, or, freaking out, continues to go his own way, then at a tender age the discrepancy between what is known and what is seen can cause significant psychological trauma.
And since dual situations await a person throughout his life, choices have to be made regularly. So a man who adores curvy women can date a model for the sake of social status. But at the same time, his state of unconscious discomfort will increase until it reaches a critical point.
A woman raised on patriarchal values will build a career, tormented by guilt that her husband and children do not get her attention. And this is a direct path to depression.
After graduating from school, the girl enters the medical academy to continue the family dynasty, although since childhood she dreamed of becoming an archaeologist. Perhaps, having matured, she will change her profession in order to get rid of the constant psychological stress associated with an unloved job (get rid of gestalt).
These, of course, are not the most difficult life situations; there are many more variations. It will not sound like an exaggeration that they lie in wait for a person at every step. So try to maintain your mental health here...
Accepting and hiding beliefs
As we just noted, self-knowledge takes a hit when we deal with persistent cognitive dissonance—we don't accept as many new, helpful beliefs as we should.
Meanwhile, the impact on interpersonal relationships is varied. For example, we may blame other people for things we do, don't do, or believe in order to relieve tension caused by cognitive dissonance.
We may also refuse to let others in, feeling ashamed of our internal conflict, and this closing off deprives us of meaningful connections with the people we care about.
Also, don't forget that whenever we deal with other people, we are also dealing with their cognitive dissonance. This too can interfere with relationships, making us a target for other people's blame and shaming.
One thing you can do to minimize this in your relationships is to normalize cognitive dissonance—to show that you know it happens to everyone, and that it doesn't make us any less valuable or good people.
The people in your life will take note and begin to recognize that we all experience conflict. Sharing this conflict with others makes it more bearable and also helps us to properly reconcile our beliefs with reality.
Cognitive dissonance: examples from life and literature
An internal conflict of interest can arise for various reasons:
✔️ When we “bend” under the pressure of circumstances to the detriment of our own interests. For example, we wear uncomfortable clothes and shoes and follow strict rules because this is what the dress code requires.
✔️ Dissonance occurs when reality does not fit into expectations based on knowledge and experience gained. For example, the sight of a reserved and friendly person suddenly losing his temper can cause short-term cognitive dissonance.
✔️ Contradiction arises when making difficult choices or when forming your worldview. For example, when choosing between similar items from different brands, we are forced to enter into an internal conflict, weighing the pros and cons.
Examples of cognitive dissonance are more common than we think. Family quarrels, educational moments, friends who open up from unexpected sides - all this contributes to the emergence of contradictions and the desire to change the situation as quickly as possible.
Cognitive dissonance examples from literature:
✔️ One of the most famous and early literary reflections of this phenomenon is the fairy tale about the Frog Princess. Everything here is permeated with the internal conflict of the main character. Starting with the fact that he shoots an arrow in the hope of finding a girl, but instead gets an amphibian. Further, the newly-made wife continues to surprise her young husband with her actions, constantly putting him in a state of emotional stupor. The only way out that the hero sees is to get used to it, come to terms with the situation and reduce stress to a minimum. This is exactly what he does throughout the tale.
✔️ Another example from folklore is the phrase: “Go there, I don’t know where, bring something, I don’t know what.” And again, the main character tries with all his might to find a way out of the stalemate, using all the previously acquired knowledge and new information.
✔️ Nastenka from the fairy tale “Morozko” is complete cognitive dissonance. The girl is clearly freezing and ready to say goodbye to life, but not wanting to enter into an internal conflict, she does what she was taught. She answers softly and politely, despite all the bullying of the elderly tyrant.
The effect of surprise that he feels awakens feelings of guilt and a desire to correct the situation. Having warmed the girl and showered her with jewelry, Morozko calms his conscience and gets rid of the feeling of guilt, which creates dissonance from what is happening.
Marfushka does not create this cognitive dissonance - everything happens logically and understandably for both parties. Morozko increases his self-esteem by “punishing the shrew,” and Marfushka, in principle, reduces stress to a minimum by acting aggressively and straightforwardly.
✔️ The heroine of the novel “Gone with the Wind,” Scarlett, finds her own way of dealing with those circumstances that destroy the usual picture of the world. She says to herself: “I won’t think about it now, I’ll think about it tomorrow.” This is a vivid example of how a person seeks to get away from a problem, ease emotional stress and direct his energy to survival, postponing solving the problem until a later date.
✔️ And finally, the well-known Raskolnikov also demonstrates the consequences of internal discord. His beliefs conflict with the moral values instilled in him from childhood. After committing a crime, the hero seeks repentance and is ready to be punished in order to reduce the stress into which he plunged himself.
✔️ Sonechka Marmeladova can also serve as an example of this phenomenon. A girl of easy virtue who tries to maintain inner purity and decency. She prefers to go to hard labor, believing that this difficult path will save her from internal contradiction. The cognitive process in this case is not shown so clearly, but the dissonance can still be traced. Similar situations are found in many books and films, because internal struggle is the most interesting thing that writers and directors can reflect in their works.
How to get rid of cognitive dissonance
Every person periodically finds himself in a state of incoherence. The question arises: do we need to get rid of this and if so, how? And also the question is tormented: is it dangerous? It all depends on the characteristics of the dissonance (direction, scale) and on the person’s condition. If the subject experiences obvious and lingering discomfort that interferes with normal life and function, then the contradiction must be fought. It is better, of course, in any case, to regain stability and logic in life as quickly as possible.
How to get rid of cognitive dissonance? There are three ways to get rid of discomfort:
- Change your actions, actions.
- Adjust existing knowledge and concepts. Accept the facts as they are.
- Ignore new information regarding what is causing the dissonance.
A simple example from life: a person who abuses alcohol realizes that it is dangerous to health and gives rise to specific psychological problems in his life. Cognitive dissonance arises. How can it be solved:
- Stop drinking, that is, change your actions, habits, and lifestyle.
- Convince yourself that alcohol is not so harmful to health, but even beneficial (one glass of wine before bed). Explain the origin of life problems by the influence of another factor.
- Continue drinking and ignore any information about the dangers of alcohol, do not notice problems in life and health.
Terminology
The word comes from the Latin dissonantia, which can be literally translated as “dissonant sound.” Dissonance - what is this term? What is its content? This term is actively used in various fields. For example, it is often used in art, psychology, and philosophy. Does the word dissonance have a synonym? There are several concepts with similar meaning. Here are the most common ones: incongruity, disagreement, contradiction, disharmony, cacophony (the latter is a synonym from the field of music theory). In essence, this is a violation of harmony, a certain discomfort caused by the discrepancy between existing knowledge and ideas and other new facts. Dissonance - what is it, for example, in the theory of art? Let's turn to the scientific interpretation. According to the encyclopedia, dissonance in music is a different sound. In this case, simultaneously sounding tones do not merge with each other.
