Cognitive Dissonance is a state of conflict in the mind, whereby you have two opposing views at the same time. It can also be referred to as a feeling of uncomfortable anxiety which comes from having two contradictory perspectives of the same thing at once. The theory suggests that the mind naturally wants to eliminate dissonance where possible and this can be done through changing the way you feel about or perceive certain things (changing your attitudes and beliefs). Cognitive Dissonance is normally strongest when we think about ourselves in a certain way, then do something to oppose that belief.
For example, if one thinks he is an animal lover, and then kicks a cat in the street for getting in his way, there will be a huge level of tension in his mind. To reduce this, the mind will change his beliefs and attitude, or blame, deny or justify by saying:
• "The cat deserved it for running in front of a larger animal (him)."
• "The cat must be stupid anyway for running into me."
• "Cats are my least favorite animal anyway."
• "The cat might have caused me further trouble if I hadn't scared it off"
• "The cat walked into my foot; I didn't kick it!"
Although he might have originally disagreed with these statements, his mind justifies his actions to reduce dissonance.
The second example is what we have experienced in every day life, in most organizations people have lunch time which is always an hour, but some people actually go for an hour and a half. Rather than believing that they are stealing by getting paid for the time they didn't work for, they justify it by saying they overworked and deserve the extra time off.
Another good example could be a buyers' remorse, let say someone just bought a brand new car, she might think that she spent much more money than she should have and feels regretful and actually a little embarrassed as well. Rather than continue feeling these undesirable emotions, she will decides that the car is less likely to break down than her older one, and will actually save her loads of cash in the long run. Besides, the car is much more attractive so people will like her more and maybe she will even make them jealous. In that way she has reduced the dissonance.
Another interesting example of cognition dissonance is the example we took from the Smart People for Communications group (our class mate) which is of the situation of a woman who values financial security and she is in a relationship with a man who is financially irresponsible.They suggest that the conflict this woman may undergo is how important it is for her to be financially secure and seeing a man who is financially unstable. This will make her uncomfortable therefore in order to reduce the dissonance she can decide what is more important to her the: the man or the financial security. If she chooses to leave the relationship she reduces the dissonance but she can also ignore the flaws her man has and stay in the relationship.
This is all we have compiled in the cognitive dissonance theory.
References
2. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/124498/cognitive-dissonance
3. http://smartpeopleforcommunication.blogspot.com/
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