Do You Know Cognitive Dissonance?

Have you experienced the sensation of thinking one thing and doing another, without realizing that you have two incompatible ideas? Do these situations generate tension or discomfort? This feeling that you experience has a name, it is called cognitive dissonance.

In psychology, cognitive dissonance is known as the tension or discomfort that we perceive when we hold two contradictory or incompatible ideas, or when our beliefs are not in harmony with what we do.

This psychological phenomenon occurs very frequently in our behavior. Sometimes our ideas contradict our behaviors. It occurs when we see, for example, a bright and intelligent person committing an irrational and inappropriate action at a given moment.

Now, beyond how striking these situations may seem to us, there is an aspect that we must understand. Cognitive dissonance can nevertheless be an opportunity for personal growth. Resolving that discomfort, those contradictions are a means when investing in mental health.

Cognitive dissonance and social psychology

In 1957 a key work for social psychology was published. It was  “Theory of Cognitive Dissonance”,  an exceptional work by the psychologist Leo Festinger. In this work the term cognitive dissonance appeared for the first time, which came to explain how people try to maintain our internal consistency despite the contradictions between acts and values.

Often, as we have pointed out previously, we end up carrying out actions or behaviors that do not harmonize with our feelings or attitudes. That internal tension, that dissonance makes us aware of the need to resolve this conflict in order to live with greater integrity. Wherever wishes and actions, values ​​and behaviors are in balance.

Now, Festinger himself carried out an interesting study with his colleague or Merrill Carlsmith, where they demonstrated something no less interesting: there are people who come to accept cognitive dissonance. They do so assuming their own lie or contradiction, assuming that what they say or do in order to appease that internal tension.

What do we do in the face of cognitive dissonance?

When we experience tension or discomfort due to the existence of two incompatible ideas, we will try to eliminate it or avoid the situation and information that may increase it. That is, we will try to reduce the dissonance we experience. To reduce it we can do it in various ways such as changing behavior, altering the environment or adding new information and knowledge. Thus, we can find that almost all of us have fallen into cognitive dissonances.

For example, when we do not go to the gym even though it is our goal for the week, we eat chocolate when we are on a diet, we want something and we cannot obtain it, criticizing it and devaluing it, we smoke a cigarette when the doctor has forbidden it or when what we just bought does not meet our expectations.

In the case of not going to the gym, it goes against our beliefs of “wanting to lose a few pounds” or “lead a healthy life.” We no longer went to the gym, so what is easier, change something we did in the past, a habit or change our beliefs?

The easiest option is usually the last one. So we have to add new beliefs, change existing ones, or downplay incompatible beliefs to remove the inconsistency. “Going to the gym is something that is noticeable in the long term, nothing happens because I have not gone”, “for a day it will not be noticeable”, “I’ll go next week”.

We can change beliefs in many ways but keeping our final objective, which would be to give more value to the chosen option, and subtract it from the non-selected alternative. And so it is with the rest of the examples.

First I act, then I justify my action

As we see, cognitive dissonance explains our tendency to self-justification. The anxiety or tension that comes with the possibility that we have made a wrong decision or that we have done something wrong, can lead us to invent new reasons or justifications to support our decision or act. We cannot bear two contradictory or incompatible thoughts at the same time, and we justify this contradiction, even with new absurd ideas.

It is important to note that cognitive dissonance only occurs when subjects have freedom of choice when performing the behavior. If we are forced to do something against our will, this tension does not occur. Although convincing ourselves that we were forced can also serve as self-justification to reduce discomfort.

But is it bad that we reduce cognitive dissonance?

In principle no, since it is a mechanism that we use for our well-being. The important thing is to be aware of when we use it so as not to fall into self-deception. For example, in the breakup of a couple, or in unrequited love, we usually justify ourselves with phrases such as “I already knew it would not work”, “it was not worth it”, “it was not what I expected”, when inside we feel pain and it is hard for us to admit it.

Even in people who have low self-esteem we can also observe it, since they are people who love themselves little and try to lie to hide what they consider weaknesses, creating shields and masks that hide what they really feel. And what happens? Well, they treat people as they think they are, that is, according to the face they show them, on the other hand, inside they feel misunderstood. That is why it is very important to know that we are using the mechanism of cognitive dissonance, so as not to reach self-deception, criticism and lies.