The guilty feeling an honest person gets when telling a lie, wanting to be healthy but not wanting to exercise, knowing you should be working but feeling guilty browsing the internet instead -- these are all examples of a theory in psychology called "cognitive dissonance."
What is cognitive dissonance?
Cognitive dissonance is the term for when different thoughts, feelings, or actions contradict each other, bringing out feelings of discomfort. For example, a person may have deep rooted feelings/beliefs/values on a certain subject, yet they may act in a way that goes against these thoughts, usually bringing out feelings of guilt. As a result, people will attempt to reduce this dissonance. A few ways someone could achieve this would be to change their way of thinking to fit their behavior, add new ways of thinking/opinions to fit their behavior, or limit the importance of the factors contributing to the dissonance.
Brief History
In 1957, an American psychologist named Leon Festinger, with the influence of Kurt Lewin's theories of human behavior, believed that people were influenced and motivated by forces from the outside world, as well as forces within themselves, and that people tend to compare their own beliefs with others in order to have a more "acceptable" opinion (this was Festinger's theory of social comparison). However, Festinger realized that this theory was too narrow, and did not include other situations, such as how people would feel if they noticed they were acting out of what was socially accepted. The social comparison theory did not include the other ways in which people felt the need to reduce inconsistency and dissonance. This caused Festinger to broaden his theory, creating the theory of cognitive dissonance.
Narcissism and Cognitive Dissonance
Narcissism is characterized by having an inflated sense of self, entitlement, and lack of empathy. In abusive relationships involving narcissists, cognitive dissonance is very prevalent among victims. Narcissists are usually very manipulative. They may act a certain way one day, but completely flip the next. For example, they may be full of charisma and shower you with love one day, but be cold and distant the next. Or, they may say something, but deny it the next day. This narcissistic behavior is referred to as "gaslighting," and is an effective manipulation tactic to enhance the cognitive dissonance in the victim. These contradictory behaviors may increase self-doubt and confusion in the victim themselves.
Cognitive dissonance in victims of emotional abuse can be seen through certain behaviors such as defending the abuser, even though they are aware that they are lying, indecisiveness and second-guessing, and doubting their own memories and feelings.
Politics and Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive dissonance is also prevalent in politics. For example, a study in 2015 by students from Harvard and Stanford University noticed how people would vote for a candidate in an election despite not agreeing with all of their policies. To relieve this dissonance (the unpleasant feeling after voting for the candidate), the voters would usually shift their opinions to match the candidate's policies to justify their action of voting for them.
This explains how if a candidate becomes president and says something controversial, the voters who voted for him may attempt to justify his actions in order to justify their own action of voting for him. The more the candidate does this, the more his supporters feel positively about him or defend him due to the greater dissonance felt by the voters.
Additionally, cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias can work hand-in-hand. Confirmation bias is when an individual only accepts information that aligns with their pre-existing beliefs. For example, a news article may list all the great factors of one candidate that a person supports, which would strengthen the person's opinion of them, ignoring the fact that the article may be prejudiced and leaving information out. This confirmation bias can be used to relieve the dissonance felt by voting for a certain candidate.
Cognitive dissonance is a fascinating and puzzling concept. In some cases, it can actually be harmful to an individual, as evident in emotionally abusive relationships. It can even impact an entire nation, as seen through politics. It is believed that individuals experience cognitive dissonance very often, and examples of this theory can be seen all throughout society and everyday life.
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