Cognitive dissonance

In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is described as the mental discomfort people feel when their beliefs and actions are inconsistent and contradictory, ultimately encouraging some change (often either in their beliefs or actions) to align better and reduce this dissonance.^[1] Relevant items of information include peoples' actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environment. Cognitive dissonance is typically experienced as psychological stress when persons participate in an action that goes against one or more of those things. According to this theory, when an action or idea is psychologically inconsistent with the other, people do all in their power to change either so that they become consistent. The discomfort is triggered by the person's belief clashing with new information perceived, wherein the individual tries to find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort.^[1]

In When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group That Predicted the Destruction of the World (1956) and A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (1957), Leon Festinger proposed that human beings strive for internal psychological consistency to function mentally in the real world.^[2] A person who experiences internal inconsistency tends to become psychologically uncomfortable and is motivated to reduce the cognitive dissonance.^[1] They tend to make changes to justify the stressful behavior, either by adding new parts to the cognition causing the psychological dissonance (rationalization), believing that “people get what they deserve” (just-world hypothesis), taking in specific information while rejecting or ignoring others (selective perception), or by avoiding circumstances and contradictory information likely to increase the magnitude of the cognitive dissonance (confirmation bias).^[3]^[4] Festinger explains avoiding cognitive dissonance as, "Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point."^[5]

^ ^a ^b ^c Harmon-Jones, Eddie, ed. (2019). Cognitive dissonance: reexamining a pivotal theory in psychology (Second ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. ISBN 978-1-4338-3077-8.
^ Festinger, Leon (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford University Press.
^ Hogg, Michael A., ed. (2003). Social psychology. Sage benchmarks in psychology. London: Sage Publ. ISBN 978-0-7619-4044-9.
^ Ellis, Ralph D.; Newton, Natika, eds. (2005). Consciousness & emotion: agency, conscious choice, and selective perception. Consciousness & emotion book series. Amsterdam ; Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub. ISBN 978-1-58811-596-6. OCLC 57626418.
^ Collin, Catherine; Benson, Nigel C.; Ginsburg, Joannah; Grand, Voula; Lazyan, Merrin; Weeks, Marcus, eds. (2012). The psychology book (1st American ed.). London New York Melbourne: DK. ISBN 978-0-7566-8970-4.

[:6-1] Harmon-Jones, Eddie, ed. (2019). Cognitive dissonance: reexamining a pivotal theory in psychology (Second ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. ISBN 978-1-4338-3077-8.

[:72-2] Festinger, Leon (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford University Press.

[3] Hogg, Michael A., ed. (2003). Social psychology. Sage benchmarks in psychology. London: Sage Publ. ISBN 978-0-7619-4044-9.

[4] Ellis, Ralph D.; Newton, Natika, eds. (2005). Consciousness & emotion: agency, conscious choice, and selective perception. Consciousness & emotion book series. Amsterdam ; Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub. ISBN 978-1-58811-596-6. OCLC 57626418.

[:05-5] Collin, Catherine; Benson, Nigel C.; Ginsburg, Joannah; Grand, Voula; Lazyan, Merrin; Weeks, Marcus, eds. (2012). The psychology book (1st American ed.). London New York Melbourne: DK. ISBN 978-0-7566-8970-4.

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