Cognitive dissonance is a term used by psychologists. It describes the feeling of discomfort that you get when you hold two contradictory beliefs or values at the same time, or when your actions do not match your beliefs or values. It happens because we prefer consistency in our beliefs and actions—and therefore inconsistency causes discomfort.

Cognitive dissonance may be uncomfortable, but it is not necessarily bad. Those feelings of discomfort tend to drive us to take action to reduce the contradiction between action and beliefs—and that can be very positive. This page explains more about this concept, and how we can use it to drive positive change.

Defining Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is a concept in psychology that describes what happens when our thoughts, beliefs or attitudes are internally inconsistent (see box).

The concept was defined by Leon Festinger, in a book called A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, published in 1957. The theory behind the concept is that we feel uncomfortable with inconsistencies within our own minds and thoughts. We therefore take action to stop that inconsistency. However, this action can be both more and less constructive.

Signs of Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is therefore relatively easy to define. However, it is considerably harder to notice that you are experiencing it in real life.

Some signs that you may have experienced or be experiencing cognitive dissonance are:

• Feeling embarrassed about something that you did, and deciding not to mention it to anyone else;

• Feeling uncomfortable about a decision that you have made or have to make, but not being sure quite why;

• Feeling guilty or regretful about something that you have done;

• Trying to justify a decision to yourself, and perhaps repeatedly reviewing all the advantages of your choice; and

• Doing something that you don’t really want to do because of social pressure.

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Causes of Cognitive Dissonance

What actually causes cognitive dissonance? There are a number of situations that may be influential. These include:

The emergence of new information. For example, you try to buy ethical goods, and are very careful about the retailers that you choose. However, information emerges that one of your favourite retailers has been caught out in unethical practices involving slave labour. You feel bad about having supported them in the past.

Having to make a difficult decision with no obvious answer. It is natural to review difficult decisions, especially ones that are finely balanced, and this can often cause some discomfort. However, there will always be two sides to the story, and sometimes you just have to decide to move on.

Social pressures. Peer pressure or social expectations can be an important cause of cognitive dissonance. For example, you might hear someone say something offensive. However, nobody else seems to mind or even to have heard, so you pretend that you didn’t hear either—then feel guilty that you should have said something.

Forced compliance. Being required to comply with something that you think is wrong is a common cause of cognitive dissonance. Examples might include being asked to justify a corporate decision that you believe is wrong or immoral.

When the effort does not match the reality. If you make a big effort to do something, and then feel that it did not match your expectations, this can cause cognitive dissonance. You might tell yourself that it was worth it for another reason, or pretend to yourself that it was better than it was, all to justify the effort.

The level of discomfort felt can also be influenced by the belief that is being challenged by new information or what you are being asked to do. When the belief is more important to you—for example, if it relates to the value that you place on yourself—the discomfort will be greater. You will also feel more discomfort when more beliefs are involved in the situation.

Managing and Resolving Cognitive Dissonance

When we experience cognitive dissonance, it makes us so uncomfortable that we take action to resolve and remove the discomfort.

In any given situation, there are usually several ways to do this.

Some of these are more constructive than others.

For example, you might have a general view that you are a healthy person. However, for the last few weeks, you have been working harder than usual. You have not had time to take any exercise or cook decent meals. Instead, you have eaten a LOT of chocolate and snacks. You feel a nagging sense of guilt about your recent behaviour.

The first step is to identify why you feel this sense of guilt: that is, to see that it is because you are not behaving in a way that is consistent with your beliefs about your general healthiness. It is important to examine your views to understand why the problem exists. This will ensure that you take the right action to resolve the problem.

Having done so, you might do one or more of the following:

• Tell yourself that this is short-term, and you will get back to exercise and eating well once this busy period is over. This will at least move the guilt slightly further into the future, and also recognise that generally, you are reasonably healthy, and this is temporary;

• Go out for a run immediately, and make sure that you build time into your schedule for regular exercise. This will take immediate action and hopefully solve the problem in the longer term, but might not be sustainable if you are experiencing genuine pressure at work;

• Tell your boss that you can’t carry on like this because it is making you ill, which again will solve the problem, but may be damaging for your long-term career prospects; or

• Resolve not to buy any chocolate or snacks the next day to give yourself a day off, which is at least a small positive step.

In general, the options available are to ignore the source of the inconsistency, change one or more beliefs, change the importance that we place on particular beliefs, or take some practical action to remove the inconsistency.

On the whole, it is usually better not to try to ignore the source, especially if that involves self-delusion. This is hard to keep up for long, both because the cognitive dissonance is likely to creep back as more evidence emerges, but also because other people like to point out inconsistencies and what they see as hypocrisy.

Instead, it may be helpful to use your feelings of discomfort as a way to drive you to take positive action.

As an intermediate step towards changing beliefs or taking practical action, it may be helpful to obtain more information. This might either contradict or confirm the original source of the dissonance. This, in turn, may therefore either confirm the need for action, or make you decide that no action is needed.

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A Final Thought

Cognitive dissonance is uncomfortable—but that does not necessarily make it bad.

Instead, we can think of it as a warning sign that we are not acting in a way that is consistent with our beliefs. It often points to an opportunity for change and development, even if that is only a chance to review and update an outdated belief.

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