User:Icedcoffee14/Cognitive dissonance

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In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is described as the mental discomfort people feel when their beliefs and actions are inconsistent and contradictory, ultimately making them change one factor (either their beliefs or actions) to align better. Relevant items of information include peoples' actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environment. Cognitive dissonance is typically experienced as psychological stress when persons participate in an action that goes against one or more of those things. According to this theory, when an action or idea is psychologically inconsistent with the other, people do all in their power to change either so that they become consistent. The discomfort is triggered by the person's belief clashing with new information perceived, wherein the individual tries to find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort.

In When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group That Predicted the Destruction of the World (1956) and A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (1957), Leon Festinger proposed that human beings strive for internal psychological consistency to function mentally in the real world. A person who experiences internal inconsistency tends to become psychologically uncomfortable and is motivated to reduce the cognitive dissonance. They tend to make changes to justify the stressful behavior, either by adding new parts to the cognition causing the psychological dissonance (rationalization), believing that “people get what they deserve” (just-world hypothesis), taking in specific information while rejecting or ignoring others (selective perception), or by avoiding circumstances and contradictory information likely to increase the magnitude of the cognitive dissonance (confirmation bias). Festinger explains avoiding cognitive dissonance as, "Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point."

Founder
Leon Festinger, born in 1919 in New York City, was an American social psychologist whose contributions to psychology include the cognitive dissonance theory, social comparison theory, and the proximity effect.

Festinger graduated from the City College of New York in 1939; he then received his PhD in Child Psychology from the University of Iowa. He was initially inspired to enter the field of psychology by Kurt Lewin, known as the “father of modern social psychology,” and his work in Gestalt psychology. Studying under Kurt Lewin for most of his academic career, Festinger returned to collaborate with Lewin at the Research Center for Group Dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In a 2002 American Psychological Association article, Festinger is cited as the fifth most eminent psychologist of the 20th century, just after B.F. Skinner, Jean Piaget, Sigmund Freud, and Albert Bandura, respectively. Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory is still one of the most influential social theories in modern social psychology.

Even though Festinger’s findings about Cognitive Dissonance theory were known in the mid-1950s (1957), he began the thought process in the 1930s. An earthquake occurred in Nepal, India in 1934. After the earthquake occurred, rumors began to speculate about another quake happening. Festinger questioned why people would want to provoke themselves with anxiety. He understood that we live in complex societies and people will do what they can to fit in. He found that people did not like having inconsistent thoughts and actions and will try hard to be consistent to not receive judgment from others. Thus the basis of the theory started and took Festinger seven years to have a solid foundation of what Cognitive Dissonance fully entails.

Throughout this research, Festinger noticed that people often like to stick to consistent habits and routines to maintain order within their lives. These habits may include everyday activities like preferring a specific seat during their daily commute or eating meals at consistent times. Any disturbance to this order can lead to mental unease, which may manifest in altered thought processes or beliefs. Festinger concluded that the sole means of alleviating this discomfort is by adjusting either their actions or beliefs to restore consistency.

Since his publication of A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance in 1957, Festinger’s findings have helped to understand peoples’ personal biases, how people reframe situations in their heads to maintain a positive self-image, and why one may pursue certain behaviors that misalign with their judgments as they seek out or reject certain information.

Coping with the nuances of contradictory ideas or experiences is mentally stressful. As it requires energy and effort to sit with those seemingly opposite things that all seem true. Festinger argued that some people would inevitably resolve the dissonance by blindly believing whatever they wanted to believe.

Examples[edit]

Unpleasant medical screenings[edit]
In a study titled Cognitive Dissonance and Attitudes Toward Unpleasant Medical Screenings (2016), researchers Michael R. Ent and Mary A. Gerend informed the study participants about a discomforting test for a specific (fictitious) virus called the "human respiratory virus-27". The study used a fake virus to prevent participants from having thoughts, opinions, and feeling about the virus that would interfere with the experiment. The study participants were in two groups; one group was told that they were actual candidates for the virus-27 test, and the second group were told they were not candidates for the test. The researchers reported, "We predicted that [study] participants who thought that they were candidates for the unpleasant test would experience dissonance associated with knowing that the test was both unpleasant and in their best interest—this dissonance was predicted to result in unfavorable attitudes toward the test."

Trading Among States

The European Union created a 10-year plan for their energy source to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The European Union and Ukraine have a Free Trade Agreement, which means that the Union and Ukraine trade energy sources with one another. Cognitive Dissonance is performed by the European Union because they want to move toward using renewable energy sourcing. But, they are doing business with Ukraine as they are dependent on fossil fuels. The European Union has a want to prioritize the efficiency of their energy, but are doing the opposite. The switch to renewable energy seems difficult due to the high demand of energy in the European Union during the COVID-19 pandemic. The European Union wants to use renewable energy sources. Still, tensions may arise with Ukraine as they are responsible for supplying them with energy. These factors are why they perform cognitive dissonance to avoid conflicts within the Union.

Social behavior[edit]
Cognitive dissonance is used to promote social behaviours considered positive, such as increased condom use. Other studies indicate that cognitive dissonance can be used to encourage people to act pro-socially, such as campaigns against public littering, campaigns against racial prejudice, and compliance with anti-speeding campaigns. The theory can also be used to explain reasons for donating to charity. Cognitive dissonance can be applied in social areas such as racism and racial hatred. Acharya of Stanford, Blackwell and Sen of Harvard state cognitive dissonance increases when an individual commits an act of violence toward someone from a different ethnic or racial group and decreases when the individual does not commit any such act of violence. Research from Acharya, Blackwell and Sen shows that individuals committing violence against members of another group develop hostile attitudes towards their victims as a way of minimizing cognitive dissonance. Importantly, the hostile attitudes may persist even after the violence itself declines (Acharya, Blackwell, and Sen, 2015). The application provides a social psychological basis for the constructivist viewpoint that ethnic and racial divisions can be socially or individually constructed, possibly from acts of violence (Fearon and Laitin, 2000). Their framework speaks to this possibility by showing how violent actions by individuals can affect individual attitudes, either ethnic or racial animosity (Acharya, Blackwell, and Sen, 2015).

Social media is a way to spread messages about a particular topic. For example, public service announcements can appear about substance abuse and the harm that can be caused. Among young adults, they are attentive to the way substance abuse is displayed on social media by their friends instead of public service announcements. PSAs need to focus on how to counteract young adult’s influences on one another instead of prevention altogether. A study was performed among 30 people who were between the ages of 18 and 30, most of the people who participated reported that their peers were posting about substance abuse or advertisements appeared on social media. Another study found that PSAs can be effective on some young adults. Still, they need to be more developed in order to reach their target audience. This missing component makes them less likely to trust these announcements, one of the main contributing factors of how they perform cognitive dissonance within this aspect.

There are also examples of cognitive dissonance in dietary lifestyles as well. Although there are many people who converted to vegetarianism to save animals, they are also eating their food in abundance, and plants are dying instead of animals. This creates a cognitive dissonance due to the conflict between the urge to respect all living things and the urge to enjoy diverse kinds of food. The same can be said for meat eaters who struggle to quit their dietary lifestyles. Pet-owners are common for having cognitive dissonance towards what they eat and also loving their pet. It is hard to accept that animals like a pet owner’s dog can be hunted and consumed by other humans emotionlessly, but that doesn’t stop some dog owner’s from trying dog at a foreign restuarant.

Fitness and Cognitive Dissonance

'''Cognitive dissonance tends to have a negative reputation due to it always being affiliated with negative conflictions. However, this social theory can be useful when it comes to creating positive, strenuous routines. A study was conducted by Joel Cooper and Lauren Feldman involving testing cognitive dissonance with adults and the elderly. The purpose of the study was to see if cognitive dissonance could help improve lifestyle choices such as creating a more consistent fitness routine.'''

'''The study found that cognitive dissonance can have a huge impact in changing someone’s life through self awareness and self confliction. It is proven that when an adult does not make healthy choices, the impact is far more severe on their mental and physical health in comparison to an adolescent or a young adult. A person can become depressed, obese, etc if they do not make healthy choices, thus creating a cognitive dissonance within said person. This is where the theory can be beneficial for those looking to avoid depression and obesity, thus forcing them to make better lifestyle choices. The gym can be strenuous and difficult, which is something many people stray away from involving themselves with, but once people master the cognitive dissonance of fitness, it is far more enjoyable and beneficial. Cognitive dissonance can also be common in those trying to diet. A diet plan is hard to follow, and often unenjoyable, forcing the person to make decisions they may not want to make. For example, should I eat a donut and enjoy it, or eat a salad and dread it?'''

Drug Abuse

Heavy, hard drug users are prime examples of cognitive dissonance because even though what they are doing is blatantly self damaging and wrong, they continue to do so because the euphoric effect is extremely addictive. Any form of addiction creates a cognitive dissonance due to the conflicted feeling spawning from knowing the addiction is slowly deteriorating your life. Personal values and behaviors contradict each other often in life, and drug usage is a prime example. One can lose their job, lose all finances/assets, and watch their family leave them before changing their addictive habits depending on the severity of the addiction. In a nutshell, drug addiction is when one accepts long term consequences in exchange for repeated short term pleasure.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2005.11.023

Cognitive Dissonance In Relationships

Oftentimes a partner in a relationship can have a strong desire to do whatever their significant other wants to do in life, and this is a prime example of cognitive dissonance in a relationship. People’s decision making can become clouded when deeply in love with somebody, and they can often mistake what their partner wants for what they want. This is a cloudy way of thinking and it can often lead to regret. Confusion and anxiety can also be caused by cognitive dissonance, which can ruin some relationships when reality finally checks back in. Another key example of cognitive dissonance in relationships would be a family’s disapproval of a significant other, but the partner in the family choosing to stay with the significant other. This happens a lot in society, especially with strict, religious families who have unrealistic standards for human beings. Cognitive dissonance tends to be extremely prominent in marriages because more is at stake. When one goes against their partner in an important decision when they are married, their marriage may be at stake. When a marriage is at stake, children and finances can also be at risk of loss or separation, so important decisions have to be made where one spouse is experiencing cognitive dissonance and the other is not due to the disagreement.

Cognitive Dissonance Examples: 5 Ways It Pops Up In Everyday Life (healthline.com)

How Cognitive Dissonance Affects Your Relationships (everydayhealth.com)

DOI: 10.1111/jasp.12639

Cognitive Dissonance: Theory, Examples & How to Reduce It (positivepsychology.com)

COVID-19[edit]
The COVID-19 pandemic, an extreme public health crisis, cases rose to the hundred million and deaths at nearly four million worldwide. Reputable health organizations such as Lyu and Wehby studied the effects of wearing a face mask on the spread of COVID-19. They found evidence that suggests that COVID patients were reduced by 2%, averting nearly 200,000 cases by the end of the following month. Despite this fact having been proven and encouraged by major health organizations, there was still a resistance to wearing the mask and keeping a safe distance away from others. When the COVID-19 vaccine was eventually released to the public, this only made the resistance stronger.

When discussing who was most at risk for becoming infected with COVID-19, reports showed that Black and Hispanic Americans were the most at risk at the peak of the pandemic. These groups are more likely to have health issues that include heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Reports also showed that Black and Hispanic Americans have a greater chance of becoming infected with COVID-19 due to working low-income jobs, where they live, and their access to healthcare. So, they continued to work during the pandemic. Most likely, Black and Hispanic Americans were reported to be more likely to not have access to the vaccine. These are some contributing factors to them performing cognitive dissonance against the pandemic. Another group that had the same attitude towards COVID-19 was first responders as they should have no fear due to their expectations This contributed to their attitudes about the pandemic.