Why Cognitive Dissonance is So Traumatic for Survivors of Pathological Love Relationships Association for NPD Psychopathy Survivor Treatment, Research, and Education for Mental Health Professionals

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. Freud had a relatively psychologically uninteresting reason for the sofa, but research suggests that lying down influences psychological processes that may improve therapy. In the end, you decide to start buying cage-free eggs and plan to replace one of your meat purchases each shopping trip with humanely raised meat or a meat substitute, like tofu or tempeh.

You don’t have to be perfect to be moving in a good direction; what matters most is that you’re putting in effort to live the way that you believe you should be. It is essential to acknowledge and resolve these conflicts as much as possible. When they are just left to simmer, we are left feeling false, helpless, and insecure. When we develop integrity, we are simply lining up our actions with our beliefs and consistently acting on them.

Who May Experience Cognitive Dissonance?

Drawing a person’s attention to the dissonance between their behavior and their values may increase their awareness of the inconsistency and empower them to act. Cognitive dissonance theory might suggest that since votes are an expression of preference or beliefs, even the act of voting might cause someone to defend the actions of the candidate for whom they voted,[72][self-published source? ] and if the decision was close then the effects of cognitive dissonance should be greater. A part of that self awareness that may help in dealing with cognitive dissonance is to examine the commitments and decisions we make in our lives.

When you discover new information and you’re faced with the uncomfortable decision to … well, make decisions, embrace a positive outlook. Defense mechanisms are unconscious strategies whereby people protect themselves from anxious thoughts or feelings. Other prominent defense mechanisms include denial, repression, and projection, among others. The concept was developed by Sigmund Freud and his daughter Anna Freud.

Fighting Cognitive Dissonance & The Lies We Tell Ourselves

We may perceive dissonance when we engage in a new behavior (e.g., when we decline an invitation to an event we usually attend in order to protect our leisure time). While this can feel uncomfortable at first, it’s helpful to reflect on the reasons behind our behavior. That slight feeling of discomfort we perceive when noticing this mismatch is https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/boredom-drinking-and-how-to-stop-it/ called cognitive dissonance. Sometimes, new information leads to cognitive dissonance, but that also allows you to take new actions you may not have thought about taking before. Sometimes, when you’re faced with difficult decisions in the moment, it’s best to take a break and revisit it later when all parties have processed what’s happened.

• As the two boats, as our actions and beliefs, drift further apart, we get increasingly more uncomfortable.
• The COVID-19 pandemic, an extreme public health crisis, cases rose to the hundred million and deaths at nearly four million worldwide.
• Your psychologist or licensed professional counselor can help you understand your thought process, identify where the feelings are coming from, as well as find ways to change your bias, reduce conflicting beliefs or add new ones.
• Heider’s Balance Theory, on the other hand, emphasizes the desire for balanced relations among triads of entities (like people and attitudes), with imbalances prompting changes in attitudes to restore balance.
• Being paid $20 provides a reason for turning pegs, and there is, therefore, no dissonance.

They were asked to rate how interesting they had found the discussion and how interesting they had found the people involved in it. This is probably because dissonance would be caused if we spent a great effort to achieve something and then evaluated it negatively. Participants in the high-dissonance condition spread apart the alternatives significantly more than the participants in the other two conditions.

British Dictionary definitions for cognitive dissonance

That’s why many people seek to avoid or minimize regret in their lives, and seek “closure” — imposing a definitive end to an event or relationship. Another example can be seen in many people’s continuing to smoke two or three packs of cigarettes a day, even though research shows they are shortening their own lives. Cognitive dissonance plays a role in many value judgments, decisions, and evaluations.

People sometimes deal with this by finding ways to justify their behaviors or findings ways to discredit or ignore new information. The theory is based on the idea that two cognitions can be relevant or irrelevant to each other (Festinger, 1957). Such cognitions can be about behaviors, perceptions, attitudes, emotions, and beliefs. If the cognitions are relevant, they can be in agreement (consistent) or disagreement (inconsistent) with one another (Festinger, 1957). If you’ve ever made a decision despite the fact it goes against your values and beliefs, and you then felt stress, regret or turmoil, you’ve experienced cognitive dissonance.

Factors of Cognitive Dissonance

“You’re more likely to feel guilty if you’re doing something that goes against your values,” notes Dr. Prewitt. Working with a therapist can allow people to acknowledge inner conflict and perhaps change their behavior for the better. Compartmentalization is not inherently negative—sometimes you need to put one conflict or aside in order to tackle another challenge. But in some instances, compartmentalization can be indicative of a deeper problem.

• These cognitions can become conflicting and this clash causes sufficient unpleasant tension so as to motivate us to change things (to reduce or eliminate), and to create balance.
• He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.
• This is done by learning how to change their thought patterns and remove their dissonance through various methods of therapies such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).
• Similarly, when we lose in a contest, we come to desire the prize less because we view it as less valuable.

Socrates extolled that “An unexamined life is not worth living.” In other words, challenge and be skeptical of such answers if you find yourself falling back on them. We also don’t like to second-guess our choices, even if later they are proven wrong or unwise. By second-guessing ourselves, we suggest we may not be as wise or as right as we’ve led ourselves to believe. This may lead us to commit to a particular course of action and become insensitive to and reject alternative, perhaps better, courses that come to light.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words In Therapy, Too

Indeed, research has shown that when put in a situation in which a person with racist attitudes works cooperatively with a member of the race they disdain, after a while, their racist attitudes cognitive dissonance treatment tend to weaken. Fundamentally, there are two ways a person can reduce cognitive dissonance. The other is to make or keep one’s behavior consistent with one or the other belief.

People who feel it could realize, for example, that they need to update their beliefs to reflect the truth, or change their behavior to better match the person they want to be. When someone tells a lie and feels uncomfortable about it because he fundamentally sees himself as an honest person, he may be experiencing cognitive dissonance. 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 fact, it can prompt you to make positive changes when you realize your beliefs and actions are at odds. In addition to these emotional experiences, cognitive dissonance can also inspire a change in your behavior or beliefs. Some of these changes can be positive, such as shifting problematic beliefs or harmful habits.