Psychology
What is Cognitive dissonance?
Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort you feel when your beliefs and actions clash. To ease it, people often change a belief, justify their behavior, or downplay the conflict — sometimes without realizing it.
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Watch a 2-minute lesson with voice + animation that explains cognitive dissonance.
Key things to understand
- 1It's the discomfort of holding conflicting beliefs or actions.
- 2We're motivated to reduce that tension.
- 3People may rationalize, deny, or change a belief to cope.
- 4It explains many ways we justify our own behavior.
Frequently asked questions
- What is cognitive dissonance?
- The mental discomfort that arises when your actions and beliefs contradict each other.
- What's an example of cognitive dissonance?
- A smoker who knows it's harmful may downplay the risk to ease the conflict between belief and behavior.
- How do people reduce cognitive dissonance?
- By changing a belief, justifying the behavior, or minimizing the importance of the conflict.