Cognitive Dissonance! Do not get scared by the complicated name!
Giving complicated names to simple things is the best way to sound scientific and be taken seriously!
There is a novel called The Psychology of Stupidity! Yes! It is a very intellectually put novel about, well stupidity! In one section of the novel the author mentions how if you wear a white coat while telling something, you are more likely to be taken seriously! Even if he or she is actually not being serious!
In the same way Cognitive dissonance is just a complicated name for a very simple phenomenon which we face each and every step of our life!
Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort experienced when a person holds two or more contradictory beliefs, values, or attitudes, or when their actions contradict their beliefs.
People are motivated to reduce this uncomfortable feeling to achieve internal psychological consistency; in simple there are conflicts within our minds all the time and we strive to strike a balance!
The core of cognitive dissonance is an inconsistency between cognitions (thoughts, beliefs, or opinions) or between a cognition and a behavior.
The most common example is smoking! There are in fact many doctors who may smoke! They know it is wrong but they still do! That is the conflict!
The obvious discomfort is that the same doctor who smokes may even tell his or her patient that smoking is bad! This clash of ideas or beliefs produces feelings of unease, guilt, shame, anxiety, or stress. The greater the importance of the conflicting beliefs, the more intense the discomfort!
The discomfort may actually make him or her smoke more!
Then again many times there occurs a motivation to alleviate this tension and individuals are motivated to change something to restore balance.
The most common response is not to change the behavior (which is often difficult), but to change the attitudes or beliefs to justify the behavior!
The most direct, but often hardest, approach is usually not taken!
For a smoker, this would mean quitting smoking!
The common approach taken is justification or the cognition!
In this the individual may create explanations or excuses. A smoker might tell themselves that the health risks have been overstated or that smoking helps them manage stress, which is a valid concern for them!
He or she would opine that the stress is more dangerous and acute than smoking which is in fact a slow poison!
In fact we constantly face this conflict in our life and try to justify or make excuses rather than change the habit which is actually the proper solution!
A person who values health but eats a doughnut might tell themselves, “I’ll exercise more tomorrow” or “I deserve a treat once in a while”!
Someone who believes in protecting the environment but throws trash on the ground might justify it by thinking, “It’s just one piece,” or “someone else will pick it up”.
The most common is how someone takes social pressure!
He or she may laugh at an offensive joke to fit in, then feel shame for going against one’s own values regarding kindness or respect!
He or she may actually tell the truth in a post but then take it out or edit it so that it will not be considered rude or offensive! Then struggle with his or her conscience!
Then again; all these are fairly limited to the human! Just the fact that you are getting this whole feeling means that there is some humanity left in you! So if you feel Cognitive dissonance once in a while or many times then that simply means that you are human!
Of course a super human of sorts was our dear Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya!
Jai hind!
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