What is Cognitive Dissonance and How Do You Reduce it?

Though, the severity may vary depending on how tightly the belief is held. Values surrounding racism, sexism and religion can commonly cause tension when you discover new information that opposes how you feel, says Dr. Scott. It can also further strain your relationships with others, especially if you’re having cognitive dissonance related to what someone else is saying or doing. “You’re more likely to feel guilty if you’re doing something that goes against your values,” notes Dr. Prewitt. However, if a person finds that they have difficulty stopping a behavior or thinking pattern that is causing them distress, they can seek support from a qualified healthcare professional, such as a primary care doctor or therapist. Cognitive dissonance is a well-researched psychological phenomenon.

Reducing the Importance of the Conflicting Belief

That potential for self-growth is why Leno says cognitive dissonance can be a good thing. “Cognitive dissonance can be great for our decisions if we allow ourselves to experience it and accept the anxiety that comes with it as opposed to trying to get rid of it so fast and justify whatever is happening,” Leno says. Cognitive dissonance is often discussed alongside confirmation bias, but the two are slightly different.

You’ll Experience More Cognitive Dissonance With Some Decisions Than Others

Coping mechanisms can include justifying their behavior (and our relationship with them), trivializing their behavior or the importance of it, attempting to change their behavior, or changing our own behavior. Cognitive dissonance theory itself suggests that if patients are investing time, money, and emotional effort in the therapy, they will be likely to work hard to reach their therapeutic goals in order to justify their efforts. This can be a difficult and uncomfortable process and involves getting additional information.

Cognitive Dissonance Is a Result of Having the Freedom to Decide

This is especially the case when the assessment is only based on measures that cannot assess a specific state, such as facial activity or the “calm-tense” item used by Zanna and Cooper (1974). This is problematic because many cognitive dissonance paradigms are likely to induce negative emotions other than the CDS. Consequently, when reviewing the main cognitive dissonance paradigms, Kenworthy et al. (2011) conclude that guilt could be the most important mediator of common cognitive dissonance effects. Depending on the paradigms used, anger and surprise are two other emotions that are likely to be confounded with cognitive dissonance (Geschwender, 1967; Noordewier & Breugelmans, 2013).

Study 2: Counterattitudinal Essay

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others through CBT, this collection contains 17 validated positive CBT tools for practitioners. Use them to help others overcome unhelpful thoughts and feelings and develop more positive behaviors. This episode of the podcast Behavioral Grooves features an interview with Dr. Kathleen Vohs on cognitive dissonance theory. Dr. Vohs discusses the topic as it relates to supporters of Former President Donald Trump justifying one of his controversial tweets in 2019.

• We generally try to eliminate this dissonance by taking a new, consonant action or by dismissing the incongruent information.
• Given the strength of supporting evidence linking cognitive dissonance to arousal in the literature, this absence is peculiar.
• You didn’t think about it much before, but if you continue to make the same clothing choices, you’ll feel some cognitive dissonance.
• Cognitive bias is the tendency to process information in the light of our own experiences.
• Therapy can help patients by reflecting on and taking control of their thoughts.

Dissonance due to inconsistency between commitment and information occurs when we commit to a belief, value, or ideal before having all of the information, or new information contradicts the commitment we have made to a belief. Dissonance due to inadequate justification occurs when we invest a significant amount of time, energy, money, or effort, but we receive little or nothing in return on the investment. We may feel as if the effort was a waste or that we were cheated out of our payoff. Cognitive bias is the tendency to process information in the light of our own experiences. Our brains rely on patterns, past experiences, and mental shortcuts to process information quickly. That means that when we take in new information, we don’t interpret it objectively.

In two studies, we aimed to examine the CDS within the framework of the PAD model. We used two of the most popular paradigms to assess how the CDS impacts the Pleasure, Arousal and Dominance indexes of the PAD scale. The present results provide information with regard to our understanding of the CDS and are partially satisfying concerning the use of the PAD scale to assess cognitive dissonance and addiction the CDS. Once participants signed the consent form, they began writing their essay. After 1 minute of writing, the experimenter feigned to have forgotten a phase of the study and gave the PAD scale to the participants. The scale was the same as in Study 1 and its instructions explained the need to assess the participants’ emotions, as they could influence their essay.

• In the same vein, Cooper 2019 proposes the author’s personal view of this story, focusing on his own theoretical achievements.
• Theoretically, dissonance may contribute to a variety of changes in behavior or beliefs.
• In other words, consumers select attitude-consistent information and avoid attitude-challenging information.
• Technological advances are allowing psychologists to study the biomechanics of cognitive dissonance.
• Information provided on Forbes Health is for educational purposes only.
• There are a number of different situations that can create conflicts that lead to cognitive dissonance.

These 17 Positive CBT & Cognitive Therapy Exercises [PDF] include our top-rated, ready-made templates for helping others develop more helpful thoughts and behaviors in response to challenges, while broadening the scope of traditional CBT. These detailed, science-based exercises will equip you or your clients with tools to find new pathways to reduce suffering and more effectively cope with life stressors. A good example is the prospect of embarrassing ourselves in front of others, such as by forgetting our words during a speech. However, after further thought, we may decide that it does not matter what others think of us and can thus reduce the dissonance. https://ecosoberhouse.com/ occurs frequently and to all of us (Harmon-Jones, 2019). Cognitive dissonance leads to the motivation to reduce the dissonance (Festinger, 1957).

• You may experience more dissonance if you’re in an indecisive mood or if (in the case of the outfit) you have an important presentation that day.
• We benefit, though, from approaching these inconsistencies with curiosity and grace, even when we want to change them.
• The effects may relate to the discomfort of the dissonance itself or the defense mechanisms a person adopts to deal with it.
• That is, there is mental discord related to a contradiction between one thought (in this case, knowing he did something wrong) and another (thinking that he is honest).

In the Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance (1959), the investigators asked students to spend an hour doing tedious tasks; e.g. turning pegs a quarter-turn, at fixed intervals. The tasks were designed to induce a strong, negative, mental attitude in the subjects. Once the subjects had done the tasks, the experimenters asked some subjects to speak with another new subject about the tasks.