What are 7 signs of cognitive dissonance?

Cognitive dissonance isn’t something we talk about a lot, but we experience examples of it happening all the time. Cognitive dissonance, in psychological terms, describes the discomfort felt when your beliefs are inconsistent with one another or with your actions. (1)

“It’s commonplace, more so than one might realize,” says Paraskevi Noulas, PsyD, a clinical assistant professor at NYU Langone Health in New York City. “Cognitive dissonance is ever-present in both the smallest, simplest examples to the deepest layers of humanity that impact the way we interact with each other and view ourselves and the world.”

Sounds pretty significant, right? Read on to learn about where you’ve likely encountered cognitive dissonance before.

Cognitive Dissonance Examples You May Experience Every Day

Cognitive dissonance can be something you don’t even notice because your brain sorts it out quickly, such as when someone bumps into you on your way to work and you spill your coffee. You may initially feel pretty upset — ”just one more daily annoyance.” But then you rationalize. “You might say to yourself that it’s okay because there wasn’t much left and, anyway, there’s coffee usually brewing in the office kitchen,” Dr. Noulas says. In doing so, you’ve reduced the dissonance almost immediately.

Sometimes the rationalizations don’t make as much sense. Let’s say a woman smokes cigarettes despite knowing it can lead to lung cancer. She continues to do it because she tells herself she needs the cigarettes to help her deal with anxiety. Or maybe she’ll say she doesn’t smoke nearly enough cigarettes for them to cause serious harm. In this example, she’s reducing the dissonance by convincing herself the behavior is okay in her mind. (2)

Another common example of cognitive dissonance is the rationalization that takes place when people “cheat” while on a diet. How many times have you committed to healthy eating when a doughnut, cupcake, or another delicious-looking food item threatened to take you off course? Maybe you thought, “Eh, it’s only one doughnut. I’ll skip lunch today to make up for the calories.” Or you tell yourself, “It’s not actually that many calories.”

Cognitive Dissonance Can Help Us Justify Positive Changes We Wouldn’t Otherwise Make

Many commonly cited examples of cognitive dissonance are of when we justify or rationalize negative choices or mistakes. But sometimes cognitive dissonance can help us establish positive behaviors or changes that our personality or previous habits would otherwise inhibit us from making.

For instance, if you’re someone who really doesn’t like running or hitting the gym, you may talk yourself into a bike ride or going for a jog anyway by convincing yourself that the activity is good for your health or mood — which research supports, it definitely is, whether you like the activity or not.

There’s something else in it for you: a greater purpose that keeps you going, says Matt Johnson, PhD, an educator, author, and frequent public speaker on the topic of cognitive dissonance. “You wouldn’t have done [the workout] for no good reason, but now that you’ve done it, it must be justified.”

How We Tend to Deal With the Cognitive Dissonance That Happens to Us

To get a clear picture of what cognitive dissonance is, it helps to first grasp what happens when that tension (or “dissonance”) occurs. Corrine Leikam, PsyD, a psychologist in Woodland Hills, California, says our instinctive reaction is to try to resolve the conflict and bring stability back to our lives.

This often happens in your mind without needing to actively think about it. “Once we become aware of the mental and emotional discomfort cognitive dissonance causes, it’s often a quick and instantaneous next step to reduce the dissonance in some manner,” Noulas says. You may simply adjust the importance of one idea, belief, or attitude so it’s less dissonant, she says.

In the spilled coffee example, you quickly talk yourself out of the anger you initially feel by telling yourself there’s no practical reason to be angry because you can quickly replace the coffee at little cost to you. Stability achieved.

Other times, you may try to rationalize the inconsistent thought or behavior so it appears to be more consistent with your beliefs. “In order to resolve the conflict, you may change your behavior or you may even change your attitude to be more flexible,” Dr. Leikam says. In other words, you’ll rationalize what you did and talk yourself into believing the behavior wasn’t all that different from your usual beliefs.

In the dieting example, you justify that doughnut by telling yourself you didn’t actually intend to be that strict about the diet or that the diet is only part of your weight loss plan. You’re exercising later, so cheating a little bit now is okay.

When Cognitive Dissonance Becomes Problematic

Cognitive dissonance is widespread and is something every single person experiences. And it can be incredibly problematic in some instances, says Alauna Curry, MD, a psychiatrist focused on trauma recovery who is based in Houston. “Any person would want to be able to say, ‘I have a belief system, and I govern myself accordingly,’” she says.

RELATED: Why Cognitive Dissonance Is Part of Decision-Making

In a perfect world, you’d have a solid belief system that determines how you act (not the other way around), and your beliefs and actions would be clearly aligned. Cognitive dissonance creates inconsistency that can lead to mental anguish. So in order to return to that place of harmony, you’ve got a choice: You can change your beliefs, change your actions, or change how you viewed your actions. (1)

In the case of the spilled coffee, returning to that state of mental harmony isn’t too difficult. When the inconsistency is more significant — let’s say you one of your biggest role models is implicated in some wrongdoing, such as money laundering or illegal gambling — you may have more difficulty reconciling that fact that you still look up to that person, but also may disagree strongly with the wrongdoing he or she was a part of.

Simply recognizing when you’re experiencing the tension can be helpful even when you can’t resolve those inconsistent feelings completely. Noulas says it gives you an opportunity to grow. “The more aware you are that you are experiencing cognitive dissonance, the more you’re able to understand yourself on a deeper level and explore what values, morals, and beliefs truly matter to you in the short- and long-term,” she says.

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Editorial Sources and Fact-Checking

1. What Is Cognitive Dissonance? Definition and Examples. Simply Psychology. February 5, 2018.
2. The Cognitive Dissonance Theory and Its Function in Public Relations. Penn State PR Blog.

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