Cognitive Dissonance
What can a fox teach you about how you think and behave?
Understanding the concept of cognitive dissonance is crucial for grasping several key elements in the coming sections. It will help you comprehend the reasons behind your observations and behaviours.
Cognitive dissonance states that individuals experience discomfort or resistance to inconsistencies in their thoughts or identity.
It provides a rationale for individuals’ attempts to modify their thinking when their identity and their verbal expressions conflict. Additionally, cognitive dissonance manifests when someone’s thoughts or behaviours clash with their environment or their perceived behavioural norms within a specific context.
L. Festinger defined it as an inconsistency between beliefs, behavior and information which results in psychological tension. When this tension happens, people will change things to reduce the tension.
Festinger, a brilliant psychologist, had an incredible experience infiltrating a cult (a group who claimed to have received messages from a mysterious force in space, and believed that a flood would wipe out the world on December 21st, 1954).
Festinger was fascinated by why people in the cult, despite the obvious absurdity of their prediction, continued to believe it. He called this phenomenon “belief perseverance.”
Belief perseverance is a fascinating concept that shows how our beliefs can hold on even when faced with evidence to the contrary.
Evidence and proof are no match for the power of cognitive dissonance.
The concept of cognitive dissonance was know much earlier before Festinger.
Aesop (600 B.C.) wrote a fable about a fox trotting along a path, only to notice a beautiful bunch of grapes hanging from a high vine. The fox had a good look at them, then started thinking about how he could climb up and get them. But after a while, he realised he couldn’t. He wanted to think he was clever and strong, so he had to do something to make his belief about himself match up with what was happening. Since he couldn’t change that he couldn’t get the grapes, he decided the grapes are… sour. That way, he could say he never really wanted them. So, he went home at the end of the day feeling like he’d made the right choice.
But… I am not a fox?
Too bad… Here are human examples:
A young woman who meets someone she really likes. They share all kinds of similar interests, and her friends and family all love him too. As the relationship develops, she notices that he's aggressive and violent. Over time, she starts to justify his behaviour: the tension in her mind is resolved in what she thinks is the easiest1 way possible. She may say things to herself like, “he's not lying, there was just a misunderstanding” or “he hit me, but his father hurt him a lot as a kid”…
Or imagine a child raised in a horrible family. As the child grows up, he resolves the tension by convincing himself that his mom works harder than other moms, that other families are probably the same, so they must be faking happiness at school too. This new belief that other kids are all going through similar situations eases the tension he feels. Cognitive dissonance becomes the norm for him as he grows up. Later in life, he can't figure out why he keeps getting into the same type of destructive relationships.
Children are experts at “resolving” cognitive dissonance.
Here is another example: An individual is smoking cigarettes despite being aware of its detrimental health effects. To alleviate the internal conflict between the perceived absurdity of smoking and their self-perception of intelligence, they (unconsciously) employ various cognitive dissonance strategies. Many of those might sound very familiar to you:
Change the expectation: “Smoking isn't that bad; Lots of people do it, and I'm going to be fine; My grandmother lived till she was 95 and she smoked every day.”
Change perception: “Smart people all throughout history smoked and lived long lives.
Change the belief: “I eat enough veggies and still play golf, so my lifestyle compensates for the unhealthy habit of smoking.”
Change the definition: “A smoker is someone who smokes a lot and is addicted. I only smoke a few cigarettes a day, and I could quit whenever I want.”
Change the behaviour - quit smoking (pretty hard to do)
Why do we do it to ourselves?
Your brain tries to “understand” the world, by creating a representation of it in your mind. We are motivated to restore consistency.
It's physically uncomfortable to experience cognitive dissonance.
If you view yourself as an ethical person, and your boss asks you to lie, you'll likely experience cognitive dissonance.
Many people are put in situations like this. Some will refuse to preserve the self-image. Some will decide that 'misrepresenting' a few 'minor' details about the product isn't that bad. Another person may just become 'agentic' and convince themselves (unconsciously) that someone else is responsible for their actions (“I am only following orders.”)
When our conduct clashes with our beliefs, we change beliefs instead of conduct.
This is an unconscious process we don't notice. Your mind is helping you to tell the easiest story. Most of them are not true most of the time:
"Everyone else does it."
"It's for the greater good."
"It's not illegal."
"It's only one time."
"No one was injured."
"I'm not killing anyone."
"Yeah, but I'm a good father/mom."
If cognitive dissonance is powerful enough to make people ignore facts and evidence right in front of their face, imagine what it can do when it is leveraged using advanced psychology.
In our next articles not only will you will learn and experience cognitive dissonance yourself, but you will also start to see it in everyday situations, and you'll learn to use it as one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal to change your behaviour and beliefs.
This is a great time to subscribe to our Solutions Manual and start learning how to make the best use of the most powerful asset you have: your brain.
Your brain really likes everything that is easy. Learn more here.