I’ve have mentioned cognitive dissonance before, but today will delve into it a little deeper. Merriam-Webster defines it as “psychological conflict resulting from incongruous beliefs and attitudes held simultaneously.” That is a helpful start, but it’s only a start.
Leon Festinger published his Theory of Cognitive Dissonance in 1957. In it, he described the basic hypotheses of cognitive dissonance as follows: 1. The existence of dissonance (or inconsistency), being psychologically uncomfortable, will motivate the person to try to reduce the dissonance and achieve consonance (or consistency). 2. When dissonance is present, in addition to trying to reduce it, the person will actively avoid situations and information which would likely increase the dissonance. (Emphasis mine.)
You see, we all hold numerous cognitions (beliefs, ideas and thoughts) on various topics and most of them are unrelated to each other. For example, our beliefs about how to raise a child have nothing to do with our beliefs about the causes of the Great Depression. However, when our beliefs are related, we need them to be consistent.
When our beliefs conflict, we feel pain, (or dissonance), and will try to change the belief or behavior in order to relieve the pain. Since it is easier to change a belief than a behavior, it is the belief that usually gets changed.
An easy example is smoking. The vast majority of people are aware that cigarette smoking has a negative impact on health and yet an estimated 42 million people in the USA smoke cigarettes. The cognitive dissonance created by that must be dealt with, and can be in a variety of ways.
The obvious solution is to stop smoking but, as mentioned earlier, it is easier to change beliefs than behaviors. Alternatively, the person could say to himself “well everybody dies of something.” Or “If I quit smoking I’ll gain weight which isn’t good for me either.” Or “My grandfather smoked and he lived to be 88.” But they must do something to reduce the dissonance.
This also applies to life insurance. If we need life insurance to protect our dependents but have put off purchasing it, that dissonance too must be reduced. It can be done in a variety of ways, but the easiest way is to just purchase the life insurance! But again, it is easier to change beliefs than behaviors, so it is oftentimes just rationalized away. This really falls under part 2 of Festinger’s definition above. I can tell you from personal experience how fabulously creative people can get to avoid talking to an insurance person.
We all experience cognitive dissonance to some degree in various areas of our lives. This often happens when we are confronted with new information that conflicts with our currently held beliefs. The key is to recognize it and deal with it on a rational level.