Have you ever heard of cognitive dissonance?
This theory originates from social psychology. In 1957, the concept of cognitive dissonance was introduced by Leon Festinger, then a professor at the University of Palo Alto. It helps us understand how human beings can modify their values, beliefs, and actions, particularly in response to the situation they face.
To better understand this, we must start with the following premise: “Human beings seek a state of cognitive equilibrium.” In other words, they strive for their cognitions—that is, their thoughts, beliefs, and values—to be consistent with each other and with their behavior. These are referred to as consonant cognitions. They are coherent with one another.
When circumstances lead a person to act in contradiction with these cognitions, they experience a state of discomfort, called dissonance (inconsistency). They will then attempt to reduce this state by implementing various strategies, the goal being to regain the desired state of cognitive equilibrium.
In our lives, we are confronted with cognitive dissonance on a daily basis.
Generally speaking, haven’t you ever made impulsive purchases that turned out to be pointless? Broken a promise? Or exceeded the speed limit or run a red light? We make do with these behaviors by finding justifications for them afterward.
In the strategies we employ, we can adapt our behavior, change our beliefs, normalize them, or even add new ones.
Let’s take a more typical example: Quitting smoking. A smoker who wants to quit is confronted with:
– on the one hand, their desire to quit smoking: which may be motivated by a desire to take care of their health, a desire for freedom, the desire to set a good example for their children, the suffering of those around them, the cost of tobacco, etc.
—and on the other hand, to their smoking behavior: linked to various factors such as physical dependence, psychological dependence, lifestyle habits, secondary gains, etc.
Here we have a clear demonstration of cognitive dissonance. The smoker will employ different strategies to justify or downplay their behavior. For example, they might tell themselves that it’s not the right time to quit smoking, that everyone has to die of something, that they’ve already cut down quite a bit, etc.
As you can see, cognitive dissonance allows us to avoid being in a state of constant tension, to cope with the minor contradictions of daily life, and to facilitate certain decision-making processes. In retrospect, it provides us with justification, and therefore coherence and meaning, for some of our actions.
However, it can also lead us to make decisions that don’t align with our values (or beliefs), such as agreeing with someone’s opinion, saying “yes” to someone when we meant no, lying, etc. This can even lead us into a vicious cycle by multiplying justifications until they become increasingly arbitrary.
It is also a very powerful political or marketing tool of persuasion that we must be wary of. By being aware of this cognitive dissonance and with a few simple communication techniques, it is indeed quite easy to influence someone’s choices in order to, for example, build loyalty to a product, push them into political engagement, or get them to sign a contract.
I therefore invite you to ask yourself what your own cognitive dissonances are. You might be surprised!
Rebecca Saintes
Clinical Psychologist
