Do You Know Cognitive Dissonance?

What is cognitive dissonance? 

In psychology, cognitive dissonance is known as the tension or discomfort we experience when we have two conflicting or incompatible ideas, or when our beliefs are out of harmony with what we are doing.

How to react to cognitive dissonance? 

When you experience tension or discomfort with the existence of two incompatible ideas within you, eliminate them or avoid situations or information that could make them worse. In other words, we have to reduce the dissonance.

To do this, different solutions can be adopted such as changing behavior, altering the surrounding environment or gaining new information and new knowledge.
This allows us to realize that we have all suffered from cognitive dissonance before.

For example, when we don’t go to the gym when that was our goal for the week, when we eat chocolate full blast, when we want something and can’t get it, when we smoke a cigarette when the doctor has forbidden us to do so, or simply when we buy something that does not meet our expectations.

In the case of the gym, it goes against our desire to “want to lose a few pounds” or “to have a healthier life”. And yet we did not go.

But then, is it easier to change something we’ve done in the past, or our deep beliefs?
The most feasible option is the second. We must then add new beliefs, change the ones we have or give less importance to incompatible opinions to eliminate the inconsistency.

“Playing sports is something that shows long-term effects, it doesn’t matter if I haven’t been there once” or “I will go next week”. There are many ways we can change these beliefs, but maintaining the fact that the end goal is to give the chosen option the most importance, and to remove the unselected alternative.
And this applies to all the other examples.

I act first, then I justify my actions

As we see, cognitive dissonance explains our tendency towards self-justification. The anxiety and tension that the possibility of making a mistake, of having made a bad decision, can lead us to invent new reasons or justifications to support our decision and our actions. We can’t stand having two contradictory, incompatible thoughts, and we justify this contradiction.

We change our opinions, even if we need to adopt absurd ideas for that.

If they are forced to do something against their will, this tension does not arise, although being convinced that one has been forced to do something can also serve as a means of self-justification to reduce the discomfort. due to cognitive dissonance.

But then, is it good to reduce the dissonance? 

In principle, no, even if it is a mechanism that we use for our well-being. The important thing is to be aware of this as we use it so as not to delude ourselves.

For example, in the case of romantic breakups, or in unsatisfying relationships, we use phrases like “I knew it wouldn’t work” or “it wasn’t worth it” or even “it wasn’t it. that I wanted ”, when we are very affected by the separation, and it costs us to admit it.

Some people who have very low self-esteem often use such defense mechanisms, creating a shell around them and wearing a mask to hide their weaknesses and what they really feel.

And what is going on? Other people take them for what they see, that is, according to the face they show, and then they feel misunderstood.

It is therefore very important to know that we are using this mechanism when we do so, so as not to fall for a decoy, not to lie to yourself and to know where we are going.