Cognitive dissonance is a normal occurrence that can affect anyone. 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. Here’s what you need to know about cognitive dissonance, and how to seek the proper care.

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As an illustration, Focella et al. (2016) established vicarious hypocrisy by having participants witness a fellow student make a public pro-attitudinal statement about using sunscreen whenever one goes outdoors. The participants also witnessed the speaker admit that there had been occasions when she failed to follow her own advice – that is, she had forgotten or neglected to use sunscreen in the past. In a series of studies, we found that witnesses bolstered their own attitudes and intentions to use sunscreen, and also purchased more sunscreen, after observing the admission of hypocrisy by the fellow student. As predicted by vicarious hypocrisy theory, this occurred when the hypocritical student was in the same group as the participant and when the participant strongly identified with her group.

Dissonance can play a role in how we act, think, and make decisions. We may engage in behaviors or adopt attitudes to help relieve the discomfort caused by the conflict. For example, behaving in ways that are not aligned with your personal values may result in intense feelings of discomfort. Your behavior contradicts not just the beliefs you have about the world, but also the beliefs that you have about yourself. Sometimes learning new information can lead to feelings of cognitive dissonance.

For example, you might keep an eye on how your savings account is growing, or keep a record of how often the exercise after work. For example, you want to build a habit of exercising as soon as you leave work, so you keep gym clothes in your car as a reminder. This exercise may make it easier to determine where strong dissonance is coming from and how to reduce it.

When we can’t obtain something, we tend to criticize it, which reduces our cognitive dissonance. She says that reaching more consistency in your thoughts and behaviors will create a world that’s less harmful, less likely to trigger negative emotions, and therefore, less problematic. Consider if you’re working in a job you hate, suggests Michele Leno, PhD, a Michigan-based licensed psychologist and founder of DML Psychological Services. You have a pit in your stomach every morning, and you’re counting down the hours until it’s time to leave. Living with that dissonance probably means you’re fairly stressed out and angry every day.

The observer was a member of the same social group as the writer and we predicted that the observer would experience cognitive dissonance. We predicted the observer would become more favorable to increased fees. The second corollary is that people will avoid responsibility for a consequence if they can convince themselves that it was unforeseeable at the time of their decision to act. For example, someone who agrees to write an essay favoring a position with which they privately disagree will not experience dissonance if they thought no one would read it. The motivating factor of responsibility is necessary for dissonance to occur.

• ‘James’ may find this approach more challenging, as it may be difficult to change a highly established behavioural response (e.g. smoking) or a strongly held attitude / belief (e.g. ‘living for today’).
• Future researchers should adopt a two-pronged approach to dissonance.
• Sometimes, you might find yourself engaging in behaviors that are opposed to your own beliefs due to external expectations at work, school, or in a social situation.
• There has been a great deal of research into cognitive dissonance, providing some interesting and sometimes unexpected findings.
• Sometimes, it’s easy to downplay the kindest words people have offered you.

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If unresolved, this type of professional dissonance can create stress and eventually burnout. However, you might ease your distress by searching for a job or career that’s better aligned with your values. No matter how much discomfort cognitive dissonance is causing you, there are ways you can take back control of negative thoughts and realign your beliefs, values, and behaviors. Although cognitive dissonance feels bad, it is not necessarily a bad thing.

Adding More Beliefs to Outweigh Dissonant Beliefs

Because the task wasn’t validated by a sufficient monetary reward, they made up an internal motivation that justified the lie. On a big-picture level, we have cognitive dissonance to thank for huge advancements within society. Dr. Noulas says that successes in women’s rights, environmental rights, and gay rights are examples of positive change that have resulted from cognitive dissonance. Those changes were due to individuals recognizing contradictions between how people viewed women, the environment, and nontraditional relationships and how we acted as a society (or allowed others to act). According to this theory, if you have high self-esteem, you’re less likely to struggle with cognitive dissonance. As long as your overall view of yourself is positive, you’re able to move past perceived flaws and inconsistencies in your thoughts and behaviors.

Cognitive Dissonance – The Battle Between What We Think, Feel, and Do

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. Effective https://yourhealthmagazine.net/article/addiction/sober-houses-rules-that-you-should-follow/ treatment for PTSD seeks to remove cognitive dissonance in one way or another. The therapist helps the PTSD sufferer “reframe” the trauma situation so as to understand it in a new way.

The truth is, most of us have experienced dissonance at one time or Sober Houses Rules That You Should Follow another. Unfortunately, though, there’s no flashing red light that tells you when you’re not in alignment with your values — it’s all internal. For example, someone might get so tired of feeling cognitive dissonance every time they smoke that they seek help. They might join a support group, read books on addiction, and get rid of their cigarettes. This shows us that cognitive dissonance creates a motivational state, leading to cognitive changes.

In support of their position, Aronson, Fried & Stone (1991) created a procedure to study dissonance that has become known as the hypocrisy paradigm. In two studies on AIDS prevention, Aronson et al (1991; Stone, Aronson, Crain, Winslow & Fried, 1992) had participants write speeches in favor of using condoms during every sexual encounter in order to reduce the risk of AIDS. Ostensibly, the reason for making the speeches was to convince younger adolescents to use condoms. The feeling of hypocrisy was created by asking participants to recall any instances in their own recent pasts that they had failed to use condoms. In Thibodeau & Aronson’s (1992) view, this procedure established dissonance by having participants focus on the discrepancy between their advocacy and their past behavior. They suggest that there were no aversive consequences, yet dissonance was aroused.

Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors. Once the conflicting beliefs are identified, the real work begins. Your therapist will guide you through strategies to challenge and reframe these inconsistent thoughts. This might involve questioning the validity of certain beliefs, exploring where they came from, and considering alternative perspectives. Once a choice has been made, however, people need to find a way to reduce these feelings of discomfort. We accomplish this by justifying why our choice was the best option so we can believe that we made the right decision.