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What is cognitive dissonance?

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Quick answer

Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort you feel when your beliefs and actions clash. To ease it, people often change a belief, justify their behavior, or downplay the conflict — sometimes without realizing it. It's the discomfort of holding conflicting beliefs or actions.

Key things to understand

  1. It's the discomfort of holding conflicting beliefs or actions.
  2. We're motivated to reduce that tension.
  3. People may rationalize, deny, or change a belief to cope.
  4. It explains many ways we justify our own behavior.

People also ask

What is cognitive dissonance?
The mental discomfort that arises when your actions and beliefs contradict each other.
What's an example of cognitive dissonance?
A smoker who knows it's harmful may downplay the risk to ease the conflict between belief and behavior.
How do people reduce cognitive dissonance?
By changing a belief, justifying the behavior, or minimizing the importance of the conflict.