To reduce their discomfort, the cultists then convinced themselves that the world was saved because of their faith, and they embarked on a new mission to spread the word to the world.
The degree of cognitive dissonance experienced by a person varies depending on the particular situation that caused the dissonance and the circumstances surrounding the situation. The intensity of the cognitive dissonance experienced is generally affected by the following factors:.
These factors determine the influence the dissonance and the lengths to which we will go to reduce or eliminate the discomfort. The stronger the dissonance, the more pressure there is to reduce the tension. Cognitive dissonance is natural, and everyone goes through varying degrees of dissonance on a daily basis, depending on the different situations we find ourselves in and the beliefs being challenged.
Often, the degree of dissonance is so insignificant that our minds resolve it without us being remotely aware that we were experiencing cognitive dissonance. Sometimes, however, the feeling of discomfort becomes strong enough that you become aware that something is not right, even if you might not recognize that you are experiencing cognitive dissonance.
So, how can you tell with certainty when you are experiencing cognitive dissonance? Below are some common signs that signify dissonance:. There are three common reactions to cognitive dissonance. These are:. This is the simplest and most effective way of resolving cognitive dissonance. The friend is addicted to cigarettes, yet the cigarette pack contains a warning that smoking is harmful for health.
This creates dissonance. He may look for new information that might override the belief that smoking is harmful.
If he, for instance, comes across an article that claims that research has not shown a definite link between smoking and lung cancer, such information might result in him changing the belief that smoking is harmful to his health, thereby reducing the dissonance.
While changing the dissonant belief is the simplest way of reducing dissonance, it is not the most common. This is because, in most cases, people are not so willing to change their beliefs, especially the fundamental beliefs that they have formed since their childhood.
This leads to the second reaction. If the person cannot find any new information to help them change his or her beliefs, the person can still solve the dissonance by getting rid of the action or behavior that causes the dissonance. Unfortunately, our friend is addicted to smoking, therefore quitting smoking will be a difficult thing for him.
Just like our friend, many people do not successfully eliminate dissonance by changing their actions or behavior. This is because changing well-learned behaviors is not easy. Sometimes, the conflicting behavior or action might even have some benefit for the person for example, a person who cheats in an exam.
In such instances, the person needs a way to eliminate the dissonance without changing their beliefs or behavior, which leads us to the third method. This is the most common method of reducing cognitive dissonance. With this method, the person changes how they perceive the conflicting belief or behavior. In other words, they find a way of rationalizing the conflicting cognition.
Without any information to help him change his belief and unable to quit smoking, he might justify his smoking by saying that the world is full of health risks and he cannot realistically avoid all of them. Alternatively, he might tell himself that it is better to live a short life full of pleasure smoking than to live a long life without the pleasures. In so doing, he is reducing the significance of the belief that smoking is bad for his health.
Cognitive dissonance is the feeling of discomfort we feel when our actions and behavior are not aligned with our beliefs and values.
This feeling of discomfort is so great that cognitive dissonance can have a very significant influence on our decisions and the actions we take. Becoming aware of the effect of cognitive dissonance on our decisions and understanding how we can overcome it can help us make better decisions and help us make positive behavior changes rather than continue lying to ourselves. E-mail is already registered on the site.
Please use the Login form or enter another. In "A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance," Leon Festinger, the psychologist who first described this phenomenon, gave an example of how a person might deal with dissonance related to a health behavior by discussing individuals who continue to smoke, even though they know it is bad for their health.
There are a few ways that a person might resolve this dissonance:. Leon Festinger first proposed the theory of cognitive dissonance centered on how people try to reach internal consistency. Inconsistent or conflicting beliefs lead to disharmony, which people strive to avoid.
In his book, "A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance," Festinger explained, "Cognitive dissonance can be seen as an antecedent condition which leads to activity oriented toward dissonance reduction just as hunger leads toward activity oriented toward hunger-reduction. It is a very different motivation from what psychologists are used to dealing with but, as we shall see, nonetheless powerful.
Cognitive dissonance plays a role in many value judgments, decisions, and evaluations. Becoming aware of how conflicting beliefs impact the decision-making process is a great way to improve your ability to make faster and more accurate choices.
Mismatches between your beliefs and your actions can lead to feelings of discomfort and, sometimes, coping choices that have negative impacts , but such feelings can also sometimes lead to change and growth. Ever wonder what your personality type means? Sign up to find out more in our Healthy Mind newsletter.
Dissonance reduction as emotion regulation: Attitude change is related to positive emotions in the induced compliance paradigm.
PLoS One. Festinger L. A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford University Press; Vaidis DC, Bran A. Respectable challenges to respectable theory: Cognitive dissonance theory requires conceptualization clarification and operational tools.
Front Psychol. Hasan U. Cognitive dissonance and its impact on consumer buying behaviour. Cooper, J. Cognitive Dissonance: 50 Years of a Classic Theory. London: Sage Publications; This method of reducing dissonance is known as 'effort justification. If we put effort into a task which we have chosen to carry out, and the task turns out badly, we experience dissonance. To reduce this dissonance, we are motivated to try to think that the task turned out well. In the 'severe embarrassment' condition, they had to read aloud obscene words and a very explicit sexual passage.
In the control condition, they went straight into the main study. In all conditions, they then heard a very boring discussion about sex in lower animals. They were asked to rate how interesting they had found the discussion, and how interesting they had found the people involved in it. Dissonance can be reduced in one of three ways: a changing existing beliefs, b adding new beliefs, or c reducing the importance of the beliefs.
When one of the dissonant elements is a behavior, the individual can change or eliminate the behavior. However, this mode of dissonance reduction frequently presents problems for people, as it is often difficult for people to change well-learned behavioral responses e.
A person could convince themself that it is better to "live for today" than to "save for tomorrow. In other words, he could tell himself that a short life filled with smoking and sensual pleasures is better than a long life devoid of such joys. In this way, he would be decreasing the importance of the dissonant cognition smoking is bad for one's health. There has been a great deal of research into cognitive dissonance, providing some interesting and sometimes unexpected findings.
It is a theory with very broad applications, showing that we aim for consistency between attitudes and behaviors, and may not use very rational methods to achieve it.
It has the advantage of being testable by scientific means i. However, there is a problem from a scientific point of view, because we cannot physically observe cognitive dissonance, and therefore we cannot objectively measure it re: behaviorism. Consequently, the term cognitive dissonance is somewhat subjective. There is also some ambiguity i. Is it a perception as 'cognitive' suggests , or a feeling, or a feeling about a perception?
Aronson's Revision of the idea of dissonance as an inconsistency between a person's self-concept and a cognition about their behavior makes it seem likely that dissonance is really nothing more than guilt.
There are also individual differences in whether or not people act as this theory predicts. Highly anxious people are more likely to do so. Many people seem able to cope with considerable dissonance and not experience the tensions the theory predicts. Finally, many of the studies supporting the theory of cognitive dissonance have low ecological validity.
Also, the majority of experiments used students as participants, which raise issues of a biased sample. On a big-picture level, we have cognitive dissonance to thank for huge advancements within society.
Those changes were due to individuals recognizing contradictions between how people viewed women, the environment, and whether or not child marriage was right and how we acted as a society or allowed others to act. Recognizing and reconciling cognitive dissonance is not always a feel-good experience. Spotting dissonance in our own lives can be painful, embarrassing, and anxiety-inducing, too. And it can be troubling and mentally exhausting to deal with, Curry says.
And yet, you go every day. Maybe not feeling so negative about that job is a matter of recognizing its benefits, Leno says.
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