Cognitive dissonance can motivate people to take steps to reduce the discomfort or distress that cognitive dissonance and addiction they feel. The more dissonance people feel, the more likely they will do something about it. In such cases, they need to know how to reduce cognitive dissonance in order to minimize the discomfort that they feel.
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For example, turning pegs (as in Festinger’s experiment) is an artificial task that doesn’t happen in everyday life. Unresolved cognitive dissonance can lead to increased stress, anxiety, and emotional distress over time. Addressing and managing dissonance is essential for maintaining mental well-being. Even seemingly trivial decisions can trigger cognitive dissonance if they involve conflicting values. Resolving or reducing cognitive dissonance is not always an easy task — but it’s worth it. “It takes constant attention to work on ourselves, to continue to push to create better interactions with each other and more self-awareness,” Curry says.
- It is important to note that people only experience discomfort when they are aware of the conflict between their attitudes and reality.
- Bringing attention to the inconsistencies in our minds can be an opportunity for growth.
- The dissonance between two contradictory ideas, or between an idea and a behavior, creates discomfort.
- Sure, you eventually get your work done, but you know you could be doing more.
Decisions
Before they went on stage, they were told to think of a time when they didn’t exhibit that behavior. The participants felt like hypocrites — but their intention to take the positive action increased. However, the research shows that cognitive dissonance can have positive effects. When we process the dissonance and understand why it’s happening, we can make changes that bring us into alignment.
Factors That Influence Cognitive Dissonance
For example, if you believe you watch too much TV but continue to be a couch potato, you are likely to feel some degree on cognitive dissonance. Accepting our flaws and not jumping to deny them through rejection, justification, or avoidance makes us more likely to seek to change our behavior. Let’s take the example of people who express their love for animals but continue to buy into their exploitation by consuming meat and dairy. You may make a conscious effort to choose nutritious foods, try to avoid processed foods and soda, and shoot for eight hours of sleep every night. To deal with this, you might convince yourself that the outcome or results were better than they really were.
Learning How to Reduce Cognitive Dissonance
- This might involve going along with something due to peer pressure or doing something at work to avoid getting fired.
- You have a pit in your stomach every morning, and you’re counting down the hours until it’s time to leave.
- People may do this via defense mechanisms, such as avoidance.
- For example, thinking smoking causes lung cancer will cause dissonance if a person smokes.
- “Then ask yourself why you behaved as you behaved.” This can help you see how you got into the situation and hopefully you can see a way to resolve it.
When one of the dissonant elements is a behavior, the individual can change or eliminate the behavior. Participants in the “severe embarrassment” condition gave the most positive rating. In the “severe embarrassment” condition, they had to read aloud obscene words and a very explicit sexual passage.
- There are 3 ways to reduce cognitive dissonance–change your beliefs, change your behavior or rationalize your feelings and behaviors.
- When we resolve our cognitive dissonance, we motivate ourselves to make good choices.
Avoidance
Matz and his colleagues (2008) showed that our personality can help mediate the effects of cognitive dissonance. They found that people who were extraverted were less likely to feel the negative impact of cognitive dissonance and were also less likely to change their mind. Introverts, on the other hand, experienced increased dissonance discomfort and were more likely to change their attitude to match the majority of others in the experiment. Another example can be seen in many people’s continuing to smoke two or three packs of cigarettes a day, even though research shows they are shortening their own lives. Sometimes, the ways that people resolve cognitive dissonance contribute to unhealthy behaviors or poor decisions.