Cognitive dissonance theory might suggest that since votes are an expression of preference or beliefs, even the act of voting might cause someone to defend the actions of the candidate for whom they voted,[72][self-published source? ] and if the decision was close then the effects of cognitive dissonance should be greater. As a result of wanting to resolve the mental conflict of cognitive dissonance, people might either change their behavior or ignore information that goes against their desires and goals. For example, the smoker might either quit smoking or rationalize their smoking by saying other habits are just as dangerous.
“It’s important to be in touch with your own value system and know when your thinking is being driven by emotions,” says Corrine Leikam, PsyD, an adjunct professor at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Over time, living out of integrity with our values begins to take its toll on our psychological well-being and mental health. To ease the psychological pain of rejecting one choice (FOMO, anyone?) we often start justifying https://beautypatrol.ru/reviews/medovoe-mylo-agafi-dlya-volos-i-tela-proveryaem-universalnost-dlya-kakikh-tseley-luchshe-i_119386/ our decision. When we do this by thinking up positives for our choice and negatives for the other option, it’s called the “spreading of alternatives.” Your brain feels better when you can align your behavior with your values. That is, people might not engage in more effortful emotion regulation (e.g., reappraisal) due to a lack of belief in their ability, or because they believe that emotions are fixed entities.
Some Cognitive Dissonance Can Help Us Grow
Koller and Salzberger (2007) developed an eight-item consumer behavior scale. Their questionnaire includes items regarding the decision-making process before and after the purchase. The full text can be requested from the authors free of charge via the ResearchGate website.
Many people seem able to cope with considerable dissonance and not experience the tensions the theory predicts. It is a theory with very broad applications, showing that we aim for consistency between attitudes and behaviors and https://www.basilic.ru/index.php?op=shownews&nid=76 may not use very rational methods to achieve it. It has the advantage of being testable by scientific means (i.e., experiments). Because these participants did not make a decision, they did not have any dissonance to reduce.
Cognitive Dissonance Causes
“If you believe in the power of recycling but you don’t have access to a recycling program in your community, this can cause you distress or discomfort because you have this value that’s important to you but you’re not participating in it,” says Dr. Prewitt. Considering cognitive dissonance and intergenerational trauma may help avoid one-sided responses to the tragedy in the Middle East. Psychologist Leon Festinger published the book A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance in 1957. Among the examples he used to illustrate the theory were doomsday cult members and their explanations for why the world had not ended as they had anticipated. Many experiments have since been conducted to illustrate cognitive dissonance in more ordinary contexts.
- Before proposing a broad model of dissonance-reduction, we will point to a critical theoretical issue in past research.
- One of the most effective psychological therapies is called “Cognitive Therapy” (CT), and it aims to alleviate psychosocial problems by changing people’s thoughts from negative or self-defeating attitudes to more positive beliefs.
- He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.
- Despite the vast amount of research spawned by dissonance theory, there is to date no general model of dissonance reduction.
“If a machine is expected to be infallible, it cannot also be intelligent,” he once said. Explore the dopamine detox trend, its origins, and its potential benefits and drawbacks. We benefit, though, from approaching these inconsistencies with curiosity and grace, even when we want to change them. A woman campaigns for a political candidate that she believes fits her values.
What Influences Cognitive Dissonance?
Festinger argued that cognitive dissonance is more intense when a person holds many dissonant views, and those views are important to them. Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort a person feels when their behavior does not align with their values or beliefs. People who learn that greenhouse emissions result in global warming might experience feelings of dissonance if they drive a gas-guzzling vehicle. To reduce this dissonance, they may seek out new information that overrides the belief that greenhouse gasses contribute to global warming. This is particularly true if the disparity between their beliefs and behaviors involves something that is central to their sense of self.
It’s more common to feel discomfort and to feel like you need to resolve the dissonance when cognitions are important to you or they conflict heavily with each other. You can also lessen the chances of dissonance beginning in the first place if you practice being mindful, Noulas says. So, for instance, when conflict or tension arises, take the time to pause and think through your situation and your feelings.
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We argue that the quick fix route in the primary reduction stage is an implicit-automated response, since it occurs before any deeper elaboration of the dissonant stimuli (cf. Braunstein et al., 2017). As for the habitual responses at this stage, habitual avoidance of certain dissonant information may be a http://www.bal-con.ru/news/2008-02-11/50_grammys/ more implicit process than trivialization, since trivialization involves the downplaying of cognitions. In the secondary evaluation stage, any automated goal pursuit should be more implicit than cost-benefit analyses performed via the conscious consideration of motivational goals and cognitive capacity.