What does cognitive dissonance mean?
What does cognitive dissonance mean?
If someone says you suffer from cognitive dissonance, what does that even mean?
Cognitive dissonance is a term from psychology that refers to the stress which results from holding conflicting beliefs.
When paired with the theory of operant conditioning, the theory of cognitive dissonance predicts that if two of a person’s beliefs contradict one another, then one or both of the beliefs will change to minimize the dissonance (the dissonance acts as a positive punishment for the conflict).
An example of a prediction made by cognitive dissonance is this: if a person mistreats someone they love, and does not own the fact that they have mistreated them, then they will love that person less.
This is because the behavior of hurting a person is in conflict with loving them. If they are unable to integrate the mistreatment via conscious acknowledgement and amends-making, then this conflict will cause dissonance. In order to eliminate the dissonance, the person will stop loving the person.
Basically, the psychological process called justification is a dissonance-reduction strategy.
Colloquially, the term “cognitive dissonance” refers to the simple fact of the conflict. But technically speaking, the dissonance is the stress caused by that conflict.
A lot of people have given good answers but I'll throw in an anecdote.
Growing up my dad would talk about how important it is to follow laws. Don't do drugs, don't drink and drive, etc, but even the smaller ones like don't jay-walk and never litter.
On a car ride I noticed he was going like 5 mph over the speed limit and I pointed it out. Something like "if its important to follow every law why are you breaking the speed limit".
And he responded something about how it's not an actual law but a recommended speed or something. But I kept saying it was a law and he was breaking it. He got pretty upset and finally said if I didn't drop he'd take away my Gameboy for a weekend or something.
It could've been he was just annoyed his kid wouldn't shut up but it seems like textbook cognitive dissonance that he couldn't reconcile the two ideas that every law should be followed and it's ok to break the speed limit a little and it got him upset.
That really helps make it understandable. Thanks you!
Many people are giving wrong answers. Cognitive dissonance is NOT simply holding two opposing ideas in your head. Cognitive DISSONANCE is the uneasy feeling people are supposed to get when holding discongruent ideas at the same time.
Some people do not feel cognitive dissonance at all even while openly voicing the opinions. Great examples are all over politics. If one is for women having the freedom to make their own medical decisions, but oppose abortion bejng legal, those are two opposing views that SHOULD trigger unease and make them reconsider one position or the other.
A better example is people that believe laws should apply equally to everyone, but then go on to say Trump should totally be immune. That SHOULD cause dissonance, but it doesn't for far too many.
So like believing all I was told about a political party from my youth, then seeing the evidence of what that party believes that is against what I thought, that confused feeling is cognitive dissonance. Thank you!
"Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two conflicting ideas simultaneously"
- Spec Ops: The Line (loading screen hint)
There's a great comic by The Oatmeal that explains it more thoroughly, and it's an amusing read.
I always love The Oatmeal, but I hadn't seen that one yet.
Thanks for sharing!
Bro, that's not a comic, it's a fucking novel 😂
Yes. That's what comic books are.
If anything, it's a glorified picture book.
That is a really cool comic thank you!
holding two conflicting beliefs at the same time.
like you don't believe in the death penalty, but you read about a child molester and want them to die.
Not just that. Cognitive dissonance is when someone realizes that they hold conflicting beliefs. Most people that hold conflicting beliefs have not yet experienced that dissonance.
I don't think that article is correct.
I've never understood subsequent realization to be integral to the dissonance itself, which already exists regardless of one's awareness of it.
It's like insisting that you are not depressed unless you "realize" you're depressed.
unless by "realization" that article simply mean experiencing conflicting emotions, which is the cognitive dissonance itself.
requiring "realization" of a feeling as a prerequisite to that feeling existing doesn't check out.
That really helps, thank you!
Sure thing!
Like you don't believe in the death penalty, but you read about a child molester and believe they should be killed*
I think this is more accurate, wanting them to die but believing that they shouldn't be killed is logically sound
In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is described as the mental disturbance people feel when they realize their cognitions and actions are inconsistent or contradictory. This may ultimately result in some change in their cognitions or actions to cause greater alignment between them so as to reduce this dissonance.
The thing with cognitive dissonance is also a bit more subtle than just the duality of conflicting beliefs. It can often arise from unidentified conflicts that are outside of your conscious self awareness.
One that I am familiar with is religion. I knew a whole lot about the bible and christianity growing up. From an early age I halfway knew things like how, when I looked at road cuts through bedrock, those layers hinted at deep time and held a story that wasn't well alined with my beliefs. Then there was my love of dinosaurs as a kid and that too did not mesh with my religious narrative. Each little element of conflict was present on some subconscious like level, and my life became partitioned between this narrative belief system and evidence based reality. I had lots of peripheral consequences in life due to this building conflict, but I never allowed the core issue to come to a head in an attempt to rectify the disparity until I was around 30 years old.
Cognitive dissonance can also be dangerous and is a contributing factor in many crimes and heinous acts humans commit. Alternative expressions of individuality may also have an origin in cognitive dissonance. Identification of these underlying conflicts is reflective of a person's self awareness and can help one improve one's mental health by taking productive action to resolve inner conflicts after identification.
That is really deep! I thank you tons!
Thank you! That really helps make it clear!
People eat meat and love animals. Veganism is perfectly healthy and doesn't require killing creatures just as intelligent and loving as their dogs and cats in order to have adequate and delicious nutrition.
If you disagree passionately with the above statement, like it gives you real feelings of frustration, congratulations, you are experiencing cognitive dissonance.
That helps it make sense. Thank you.
I meaaaaan what if, I love animals for their meat, for sustenance but also for giving headpats to said meat. Is that cognitive dissonance? (Feel free to ignore)
Cognitive dissonance is the emotion disruption caused by internal inconsistencies, not necessarily the inconsistencies themselves. Making peace with them is important for our own sanity. If you don't have any strong emotions, I would probably say there's no cognitive dissonance. I'm not a vegan either.
I'd say it depends, do you believe that you could live as a vegan? Not everyone can, and nothing is wrong with that. I view some animals as yummy and others as not, I've never tried eating an oat tree, but I'll tear up some carrots.
I like the idea that consciousness is experienced by all living things and am totally okay with a certain amount of it ending during the natural progression of my life.
Exactly. I'd say this is currently the best everyday example of the phenomenon.
Just to add, I'm not a vegan. But the anti-vegan vitriol you see online is funny when you realize it's just people's cognitive dissonance exploding en masse.
How I've learned it is, that cognitive dissonance arises when one of your beliefs or behaviours is challenged by new information. This can make you uncomfortable, and to alleviate that, people have coping mechanisms. It's probably these coping mechanisms which cause other people to say you suffer from cognitive dissonance. There's a quite good Wikipedia article on this imo.
Yea, I guess the uncomfortable part was what I was missing. I was mixing it up with hypocrisy. Thank you!
It refers to the stress of believing two or more mutually exclusive things at the same time.
Stress like the inner conflict, that helps thank you!
I wouldn't say inner conflict but moreso conditioned thinking.
If someone has been conditioned to have certain beliefs and values then they see evidence that those values are wrong they'll ignore it completely.
Like a person on welfare complaining about "welfare queens". They are receiving govt assistance while complaining about people who receive govt assistance.
It's the state of mind caused by simultaneously believing two (or more) things that conflict with each other.
I swear reddit had a community around news articles and such about conflicting beliefs. have not seen one in the fediverse.
Its when they hold two opinions that are contradictory.
Thinking “Cognitive dissonance doesn’t exist”, is one way to experience cognitive dissonance.
This could have been an internet search engine job, literally just type "define cognitive dissonance" and it will be explained. Why do we need an entire post for this??
Yes you are correct, and I did. But the more human element is missing in that. The reply that said about following laws and speeding for instance really helped it make sense.
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You think milkshakes are the best food
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Medical knowledge says you shouldn't try to only live off milkshakes
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You say the medical community is part of a conspiracy by Big Vegetable
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Israel has the right to exist
I oppose the genocide
The continued existence of Israel does not require an ongoing genocide, so those are not in opposition.
For the down voters:
Nazi Germany has the right to exist
I oppose the genocide