Cognitive Dissonance Examples and Effects

cognitive dissonance treatment

He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology. People like to believe that they are logical, consistent, and good at making decisions. Cognitive dissonance can interfere with the perceptions they hold about themselves and their abilities, which is why it can often feel so uncomfortable and unpleasant. The degree of dissonance experienced can depend on a few different factors.

Social pressures

  • They were asked to rate how interesting they had found the discussion and how interesting they had found the people involved in it.
  • It may not be correct in all of its details, but it upsets the conventional wisdom that came before.
  • Sometimes, the ways that people resolve cognitive dissonance contribute to unhealthy behaviors or poor decisions.
  • School is another catalyst for tension as people are acclimating to a new environment, meeting others and learning new information.
  • Festinger argued that cognitive dissonance is more intense when a person holds many dissonant views and those views are important to them.
  • Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the “Everything Psychology Book.”

It initiated a flurry of studies by researchers who supported reinforcement incentive theories aimed at showing that the result was a mistake. Rosenberg (1965) asked participants to write essays taking a very unpopular position at The Ohio State University. He found that students who wrote the essays in return for a large incentive changed their attitudes more than those who wrote in return for a small incentive. People experience cognitive dissonance for many reasons, but a common trigger is work.

Treatment & Support

cognitive dissonance treatment

Cognitive dissonance is a little different than its evil twin, hypocrisy. But because we want the benefits of presenting ourselves a certain way, we don’t mind the inconsistency in our behavior. This kind of incongruence — called cognitive dissonance — can cause some serious mental discomfort. That’s because if you’re not self-aware, cognitive dissonance can leave you acting and feeling pretty out of character. Cognitive dissonance occurs when a person’s behavior and beliefs do not complement each other or when they hold two contradictory beliefs. It causes a feeling of discomfort that can motivate people to try to feel better.

Decisions

cognitive dissonance treatment

This may be accomplished most readily in the area of health, but can also affect the political and economic realms as well. How do we understand some cognitive dissonance and addiction of the unusual political attitudes of modern democracies that fawn over leaders who seem prepared to compromise those democracies? More than six decades of research in cognitive dissonance should make us confident that we can effect these translations productively. In order to test this proposition, I asked volunteers who had a self-diagnosed phobia about snakes to volunteer for a study designed to help them reduce their fear (Cooper, 1980).

The Drive Properties of Dissonance: Reality or Metaphor?

They suggest that there were no aversive consequences, yet dissonance was aroused. Participants whose dissonance was created by hypocrisy increased their intention to use condoms. Fazio and I concluded that dissonance is ubiquitous but its conceptualization is incomplete. In our view, dissonance begins with a behavior – i.e., it begins when people act. Actions have consequences and it is the perception of those consequences that drives the dissonance process. As cognizant human beings, we assess the results of our actions, including the valence.

  • For example, a small 2019 study notes that dissonance-based interventions may be helpful for people with eating disorders.
  • In one classic example from his original work, he asked what people would feel if they were out in the rain but were not getting wet.
  • Scher & Cooper (1989) compared the role of consistency between cognitions with the role of consequences.
  • 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.

cognitive dissonance treatment

In the social comparison view, people are motivated to influence others or to succumb to others’ influence in order to satisfy their drive to have correct and appropriate opinions. Mismatches between your beliefs and 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. Because people want to avoid discomfort, cognitive dissonance can have a wide range of effects. We may engage in behaviors or adopt attitudes to help relieve the discomfort caused by the conflict.

  • Talking to a coach can help you develop self-awareness and understand the source of your cognitive dissonance.
  • The three important features of his concept were that (1) it is experienced as discomfort, (2) it propels people to take action and (3) people feel more comfortable after the action has been taken.
  • Cognitive dissonance is the psychological tension we feel as we try to reckon with two (or more) opposing pieces of information.
  • Because these participants did not make a decision, they did not have any dissonance to reduce.