Cognitive Dissonance: The discomfort of holding conflicting opinions at the same time

Cognitive Dissonance

At its core, cognitive dissonance arises when there is a conflict between our existing beliefs or the underlying values that we hold or our behaviours. In other words, it’s that experience of doing something that sort of just doesn’t feel right, but doing it anyway and maybe justifying it away or doing it because we don’t really have a choice.

A simple example could be a person who values healthy living but smokes cigarettes experiencing dissonance because their behavior (smoking) conflicts with their belief (valuing health). I was this person for a long time before I managed to quit!

Why might we experience it?

As per the example above, we can experience cognitive dissonance when we hold beliefs that contractic each other. The healthy smoker is an example some people will relate to. Another one we experience is travelling in planes, while knowing that we care about the environment. It just doesn’t feel good. We value new experiences, learning, adventure and broadinging our cultural awareness, yet we also value environmental sustainability. We often use the langue of “internal personal values conflict” when we talk about things like that.

It’s also sometimes the case that we learn a piece of new information that can challenge our underlying beliefs and understanding of the world, creating dissonance.

Again on the smoking theme, decades ago I read an article about smokers in South Africa who protested about their new “unhealthy” cigarettes once health warnings started being imposed, demanding the return of their old, healthy cigarettes. It’s easy to dismiss things like this, but we shouldn’t. In these moments I’m sure there was a lot of cognitive dissonance.

Another example could be the increase in our knowledge about the dangers of sugar. Fat used to be the really bad stuff, not it’s sugar, or even ultra processed food. It’s kind of hard to enjoy that doughnut now, knowing this information. This is particularly problematic with behaviours that are addictive or habitual in nature. We’re going to keep smoking, we’re just going to feel bad and dissonant about it now.

One last way we might experience this is if we’re forced into situations where we need to go against our values. For example, if our employer puts us in a situation where we need to lie to a client, but our personal values are anchored on truth and honest. In this instance, we’ll experience dissonance. Again, we might frame this in our conversations as a values conflict between and individual and their organization, something many people have experienced.

Why should we care about Cognitive Dissonance?

Cognitive dissonance theory is helpful for understanding our own experiences in the world. Each moment of dissonance brings a little bit of discomfort into our lives. The more we can remove them for ourselves, the better our experiences of the world are. We can do this by improving our understanding of our values and changing our behaviours so they are more in line with what really matters to us. We can also use our knowledge of them to lead and manage more effectively, and kindly, creating better experiences for others in our teams.

However, like nearly everything from this wider field, our cognitive dissonances (and the discomfort associated with them) is also used to influence us by others.

This can happen in a benevolent way. For example, health professionals may draw our our values conflicts in relation to some of our unhealthy behaviours and making us more aware of the dissonance we feel so that they can use this discomfort to catalyse behavioural changes that improve our health. It can also, though, be used in a less benevolent way to create discomfort in people before calling them to an action in the interest of the person calling the action. Advertisers, marketers and change activists do this a lot.

The way we think as humans is fascinating. Cognitive biases clearly explain some of our “irrationality”. The Dunning-Kruger Effect is just one example of this. Understanding our Dual Process way of thinking provides some further insight into it. This “irrationality” means that we’re all suggestible and susceptible to nudging and the powers of choice architecture and persuasion.

Communication is another tool often used to change people’s behaviors. Ideas like the rhetorical triangle and the five canons of rhetoric shed some light on how this works. For a more detailed look at communicating for persuasion, explore Monroe’s Motivated Sequence.

Increasingly, products are also design to be persuasive, as it were. They are designed to create habits and drive increased use. Examples of this include Fogg’s model and the Hook model of behavioral design.

You can listen to our podcast, below, on nudging to learn more about how our behaviors can be influenced:

Cognitive dissonance is a powerful psychological phenomenon that plays a crucial role in shaping human thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes. By understanding and leveraging this concept, individuals and organizations can promote personal growth, influence behavior, and drive positive change. As we navigate an increasingly complex world, recognizing and addressing cognitive dissonance can lead to more coherent and consistent actions, ultimately enhancing our well-being and effectiveness.

Festinger, L. (1957). A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford University Press.

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