Leon Festinger (1919 – 1989) was a New York social psychologist, author of Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (1957), one of the most influential books in this discipline.
His cognitive dissonance theory It has been applied to the most diverse areas. For example, motivation, group dynamics, changing attitudes, decision making, etc.
According to Festinger’s thesis, people feel the need for coherence between our beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. When this does not happen, it causes us discomfort that leads us to resolve or reduce that dissonance.
How is cognitive dissonance defined?
Cognitive dissonance is understood as the anxiety or discomfort that a person experiences when their attitudes or beliefs clash or conflict with their actions.
Consequently, the individual can try to modify their behavior to avoid this unpleasant feeling and reduce tension. Or defend his beliefs or attitudes, even to the point of self-deception.
How is the emotional discomfort caused by cognitive dissonance resolved?
The impulse we feel to resolve discomfort and restore harmony has been called the “principle of cognitive consistency.”
To reduce tension, there are several possibilities:
- The person can modify your behavior.
- Alter the environment, your thoughts or modify your beliefs.
- Rephrase the arguments or previous ideas so that beliefs and actions can better fit their behaviors.
Self-deception and cognitive dissonance
There are times when the human mind solves cognitive dissonance assuming a lie as if it were true. That is, the person ends up deceiving himself, believing his own lie to mitigate the emotional discomfort caused by the dissonance.
Festinger and his collaborators demonstrated this phenomenon with different studies, and verified that, if there is no external cause capable of justifying dissonant behavior, the easiest way is to change beliefs and attitudes so that they are in harmony with the behavior.
Cognitive dissonance as an adaptive mechanism
In a constructive sense, current psychological therapies use cognitive dissonance in favor of personal growth.
It is often used to help the patient change your negative attitudes and behaviorsthat motivate you to overcome emotional discomfort.
It can help replace automatic and counterproductive thoughts with more reasonable and logical ones, which help us feel better. Also to detect self-deception to have greater mental flexibility.
Examples of cognitive dissonance
- A classic example is that of the smokers, who continue to do so despite all the information we have about the harmful effects of tobacco on our health. Many people resolve this dissonance by downplaying or avoiding these messages, stating that it doesn’t have to be so harmful, etc.
- In many cases of unfaithful people who have presumed that they are not or in couples who have strict moral principles in this regard, cognitive dissonance also occurs. In this case, the behavior cannot be changed, so the justification for reducing suffering may be to blame the partner by introducing new information and even opt for separation.
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