If someone says you suffer from cognitive dissonance, what does that even mean?
Cognitive dissonance is a term from psychology that refers to the stress which results from holding conflicting beliefs.
When paired with the theory of operant conditioning, the theory of cognitive dissonance predicts that if two of a person’s beliefs contradict one another, then one or both of the beliefs will change to minimize the dissonance (the dissonance acts as a positive punishment for the conflict).
An example of a prediction made by cognitive dissonance is this: if a person mistreats someone they love, and does not own the fact that they have mistreated them, then they will love that person less.
This is because the behavior of hurting a person is in conflict with loving them. If they are unable to integrate the mistreatment via conscious acknowledgement and amends-making, then this conflict will cause dissonance. In order to eliminate the dissonance, the person will stop loving the person.
Basically, the psychological process called justification is a dissonance-reduction strategy.
Colloquially, the term “cognitive dissonance” refers to the simple fact of the conflict. But technically speaking, the dissonance is the stress caused by that conflict.
Many people are giving wrong answers. Cognitive dissonance is NOT simply holding two opposing ideas in your head. Cognitive DISSONANCE is the uneasy feeling people are supposed to get when holding discongruent ideas at the same time.
Some people do not feel cognitive dissonance at all even while openly voicing the opinions. Great examples are all over politics. If one is for women having the freedom to make their own medical decisions, but oppose abortion bejng legal, those are two opposing views that SHOULD trigger unease and make them reconsider one position or the other.
A better example is people that believe laws should apply equally to everyone, but then go on to say Trump should totally be immune. That SHOULD cause dissonance, but it doesn’t for far too many.
So like believing all I was told about a political party from my youth, then seeing the evidence of what that party believes that is against what I thought, that confused feeling is cognitive dissonance. Thank you!
In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is described as the mental disturbance people feel when they realize their cognitions and actions are inconsistent or contradictory. This may ultimately result in some change in their cognitions or actions to cause greater alignment between them so as to reduce this dissonance.
This could have been an internet search engine job, literally just type “define cognitive dissonance” and it will be explained. Why do we need an entire post for this??
People eat meat and love animals. Veganism is perfectly healthy and doesn’t require killing creatures just as intelligent and loving as their dogs and cats in order to have adequate and delicious nutrition.
If you disagree passionately with the above statement, like it gives you real feelings of frustration, congratulations, you are experiencing cognitive dissonance.
It’s the state of mind caused by simultaneously believing two (or more) things that conflict with each other.
Israel has the right to exist
I oppose the genocide
The continued existence of Israel does not require an ongoing genocide, so those are not in opposition.
For the down voters:
Nazi Germany has the right to exist
I oppose the genocide
holding two conflicting beliefs at the same time.
like you don’t believe in the death penalty, but you read about a child molester and want them to die.
