Cognitive Dissonance: Definition, Theory, & Examples

By Eser Yilmaz, M.S., Ph.D.
​Reviewed by Tchiki Davis, M.A., Ph.D.
What is cognitive dissonance? Read on to find out what cognitive dissonance is and why it matters, discover its theory, and learn how you can spot it.
*This page may include affiliate links; that means we earn from qualifying purchases of products.
Our beliefs and values sit at the core of who we are. Therefore, our behaviors typically reflect these values and belief systems. If you have been in a situation when your thoughts, ideas, and values didn’t match one another or your behavior, you might have experienced a phenomenon called cognitive dissonance. In this article, we’ll define what cognitive dissonance is and explain its underlying theory. We’ll also examine some well-known studies, as well as examples from various domains of life. Finally, we’ll discuss tips to spot and deal with cognitive dissonance.
Before reading on, if you're a therapist, coach, or wellness entrepreneur, be sure to grab our free Wellness Business Growth eBook to get expert tips and free resources that will help you grow your business exponentially.​​​​​​​​​
Are You a Therapist, Coach, or Wellness Entrepreneur?

Grab Our Free eBook to Learn How to
Grow Your Wellness Business Exponentially!

 ✓  Save hundreds of hours of time  ✓  Earn more $ faster  
​✓  Boost your credibility ✓  Deliver high-impact content 

What Is Cognitive Dissonance? (A Definition)

Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort that results from an inner conflict, leading to an alteration of one of the cognitive processes or behaviors to reduce the discomfort. The inner conflict can be a mismatch between your beliefs (or other cognitive processes, such as attitudes and values). 

For instance, gender equality might mean a lot to you. As a result, you might have chosen to donate to nonprofit organizations that work toward eliminating gender-based discrimination and promoting equal pay. Yet, sometimes our actions don’t match our values and belief systems. In this case, you might have laughed at your boss’s sexist jokes and felt terrible about doing so. To reduce your discomfort, you might have even told yourself that “it’s just a joke” every time your boss cracked another one. This would be an attempt to reduce cognitive dissonance.

The inner conflict can also involve having two or more contradicting cognitions (i.e., beliefs, values, or attitudes). For instance, you may believe social media is a waste of time, but you may also believe that social media is an excellent way to keep up with your friends and family. 

The Interplay Between Cognitive Dissonance and Inner Conflict
We all feel inner conflicts from time to time, such as when there are expectations that we behave in a certain way, a new piece of information contradicts our old beliefs, or we have to choose between equally appealing options. However, the degree of dissonance depends on the number and importance of the beliefs and behaviors in conflict (Fisher et al., 2008).

For example, if your inner conflict was between choosing vanilla or chocolate ice cream, you might feel minimal discomfort over picking one of the flavors. After all, you can pick the other flavor next time. If you had to choose from six different flavors, you might feel a bit more conflicted. However, if the choice was between two or more job opportunities, you may feel a great deal of psychological stress and even regret. You might find additional reasons to justify your choice to reduce your discomfort, such as a shorter commute and smaller company size, even if these qualities weren’t included in your original decision-making process.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory and Experiments

Assume I gave you an incredibly boring task, and after you finished it, I asked you to tell others about how fun the activity was. Would you be more likely to do it if I gave you a dollar or twenty dollars? Please take a few moments to think about what you’d do but before we discuss it further, let’s cover some background. 
​
The cognitive dissonance theory was developed in the 1950s by a social psychologist called Leon Festinger. Until then, psychologists had thought people’s actions resulted from their core values and beliefs in a unidirectional and somewhat rigid manner. Hence, the consensus was that people’s behaviors were determined by and matched their values and beliefs. Festinger challenged this notion when he proposed that people may experience a mismatch between their beliefs and behaviors. Moreover, the discomfort caused by this mismatch could be lessened by rationalizing the behavior or adjusting beliefs to match the behavior (Festinger, 1957).  

Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory has three components: the inner conflict, the discomfort caused by the inner conflict, and the attempt to resolve the discomfort. Furthermore, there are multiple ways people may try to resolve their discomfort. These include changing their actions, adjusting their beliefs, and modifying their perceptions of the actions. 

Festinger’s Cognitive Dissonance Theory Example
For instance, if someone cheats on their spouse, they may regret their infidelity and decide never to do it again. If they can keep their promise, that is an example of changing their action. Alternatively, they may start to think differently about marriage and fidelity, which is an example of adjusting their beliefs. They may also rationalize their affair by saying that their spouse has been acting distant lately and didn’t put any effort into their relationship. This attempt to rationalize the conflicting behavior is an example of modifying self-perception and perceptions of others. 

Cognitive Dissonance Experiments
Let’s go back to the boring task. I asked you to tell others how exciting it was. You might think you would agree if offered the larger amount of money. Would you believe me if I told you that you’d be more likely to rave about the task if I gave you only a dollar? This counterintuitive scenario was Festinger’s seminal experiment. 

Briefly, he asked participants to shuffle pegs on a board for an hour. When a participant finished this repetitive and mind-numbingly dull task, he asked them to tell the person waiting outside that the task was fascinating. For this, he offered one dollar to half of the subjects and twenty dollars -- which was quite a sum in the 1950s -- to the other half. The participants who received twenty dollars associated the money with the task and didn’t experience cognitive dissonance. On the other hand, the participants who received only a dollar felt the need to justify that they did a nonsensical task for an entire hour. Therefore, they were more willing to modify their perceptions about their action—in this case, saying that the task was indeed fun and interesting (Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959).

Another influential experiment was done by J.W. Brehm. He asked female participants to rate eight household products such as a toaster, a coffee maker, a radio, etc. (Brehm, 1956). Next, he gave the participants a choice between two equally appealing products or between a very desirable and less desirable product. After the participants chose a product, they were asked to reevaluate the desirability of the products.

This second time around, participants who chose between two desirable products gave a better rating to their choice while rating the other product lower. In contrast, the participants in the other group didn’t really change their ratings (Brehm, 1956). These results implied that the participants who had to make a tough choice changed their beliefs about the desirability of products to justify their choices. 

Cognitive dissonance theory has been one of the most enduring theories in psychology and was studied in various contexts to explain perceptual and behavioral changes. The popularity of the cognitive dissonance theory isn’t surprising, given how common this phenomenon is. Let’s discuss some examples from everyday life.

Cognitive Dissonance Examples

  • Cixin is worried about climate change and environmental degradation. However, his company gives him a new gasoline-guzzling truck. He justifies his new ride by stating that he needs to carry equipment from one site to another once in a while, and he can’t do that with a smaller and less-powerful vehicle.
  • Julie is proud of her honesty and often reminds her daughter, Lilly, to tell the truth, no matter what. One day Lilly asks Julie if Santa is real. Julie smiles enthusiastically and says, “Of course he is real.” Julie is uncomfortable about lying to her daughter. She justifies her behavior by thinking that this lie doesn’t count because almost all parents tell it to their children. 
  • John believes eating wholesome foods is essential for his long-term well-being. Unfortunately, he has a busy schedule and has been eating a lot of fast food or frozen dinners lately. John tells himself that many other people eat fast food daily but remain healthy. Slowly, he starts to believe that wholesome foods are overrated and one can stay healthy as long as one takes supplements to make up for missing nutrients in their diet.
  • Before getting married, Rani used to enjoy reading romance novels. Her husband thinks romance novels are literary garbage, so she stops reading them and tells herself that romance plots have become boring anyway.
  • Lance was one of the best students at his high school and won a scholarship to attend a prestigious university across the country. His girlfriend, Camilla, was accepted to only a couple of colleges in their state. Lance felt torn between staying close to the woman of his dreams and getting the education of his dreams. He ended up choosing the offer from the prestigious university. He justified his decision by thinking that he’s too young to be in a committed relationship and can find another girlfriend if he and Camilla can’t make their long-distance relationship work. 
  • Karthik has promised his parents that he’ll never try any illegal drugs. Last week, he attended a party where his friends were taking some pills. When he was offered one, he declined. His friends called him names and made fun of him. Reluctantly, Karthik took one of the pills and popped it into his mouth. “It’s just this one time,” he thought. 

​If you’d like to see more examples of cognitive dissonance, here is an informative video you may enjoy.

Video: Cognitive Dissonance Definition and Three Examples

Cognitive Dissonance in Marketing

The goal of marketing is to convince potential customers to purchase a product. But how do advertisers and marketers know to influence us, and how does cognitive dissonance play a role? Think of any advertisements you might have seen recently, and you’ll see a few common themes. Typical advertisements focus on people’s insecurities and generate cognitive dissonance between who you could be and who you are now. Then, they offer a product to solve your cognitive dissonance. 

To illustrate this, let’s imagine a deodorant advertisement. An attractive woman uses the deodorant after showering. In the next scene, she’s giving a business presentation with a big smile and no sweat marks under her sleeves. In the following scene, she’s having a laugh with an attractive man at a fancy restaurant, and the man looks smitten because our main character smells amazing. As a result, you can experience cognitive dissonance because you might want to feel this at ease at work and attract potential partners, too. And if you were to listen to the advertiser, all you need is to buy and use this deodorant. 

Another way advertisers use cognitive dissonance is when they use celebrities and influencers for marketing their products. Maybe you dislike a particular brand of dish soap, but after you see your favorite celebrity use it, you might modify your original opinion and start liking the product. You may even buy the celebrity-endorsed brand next time you are low on dish soap. 

Many internal conflicts created by advertisements don’t impact us. However, many others may make us feel cognitive dissonance and increase our insecurities, lowering our self-esteem.

Cognitive Dissonance in Politics

Another domain heavily influenced by cognitive dissonance is politics. For instance, people tend to have a more favorable opinion of a candidate after voting for them (Mullainathan & Washington, 2009). People can disagree with specific actions of a political figure they voted for, but they might justify and defend those actions or minimize or dismiss their adverse effects. These rationalizations may help individuals ease the discomfort associated with the discomfort of voting for someone dishonest or malicious. 
​
Another impact of cognitive dissonance is seen in our polarized political identities. If we are inclined toward one political party, we may disagree with their entire platform. Yet, the more we associate with that party’s candidates, the more we might align our beliefs to match the consensus among its supporters. In the end, we may even change our original beliefs and values to overcome the discomfort of cognitive dissonance.

Cognitive Dissonance in Relationships

Cognitive dissonance can also play a role in relationships, whether between friends, family, or romantic partners. Suppose your family puts a high value on people’s careers. Imagine you fall in love with someone who works a dead-end job with no chances of advancement. Now you are faced with a choice. You know your family would look down on your significant other, and your relationship with your parents may suffer if you choose to stay with your sweetheart. On the other hand, if you break up with your significant other, you’ll lose the love of your life. Whatever you decide to do, chances are you’ll try to ease your discomfort by justifying your choices or changing your beliefs.

Since the degree of cognitive dissonance depends on the importance of the conflicting beliefs and behaviors, it may affect high-stakes relationships the most. For instance, if your friends listen to a different music genre or vote for the candidates you dislike, you may not have much cognitive dissonance. If the behavior really bothers you, you may stop hanging out with those friends. However, if your spouse starts listening to annoying music all day or votes for that one candidate you just can’t stomach, you face a more significant dilemma. As a result, if you stay in that marriage, you might start thinking that your spouse’s preferred music genre is actually not that bad and end up softening your political opinions as well.

Cognitive Dissonance in Narcissism

Narcissistic people are masters of generating cognitive dissonance in other people’s minds. Imagine a young, accomplished woman, Yael, who starts dating a charming man named Tom. At first, Tom showers Yael with little presents, buys her flowers, takes her to trendy restaurants, and makes Yael feel like a princess in a fairy tale. On the nights they don’t see each other, he calls Yael, and they talk for hours.

These behaviors set an expectation on Yael’s mind regarding the relationship and how invested Tom is. However, Toms starts acting a bit distant after a while and implies that Yael should lose some weight. Convinced that Tom loves her, Yael rationalizes his recent behavior and starts dieting. After she loses a few pounds, Tom says that her chest looks flat and unattractive. When Yael tells him that she lost weight for him, Tom laughs that he never told her to lose weight, and only a desperate and crazy person would misunderstand his previous comments. 
​
You may not know someone like Yael or Tom. Nonetheless, cognitive dissonance in narcissistic relationships is not only common but also destructive. Thus, it is necessary to be able to tell the signs of cognitive dissonance, which we’ll discuss next

How to Spot Cognitive Dissonance

Although we all act out of character once in a while or adopt new beliefs and values over time, these don’t necessarily indicate cognitive dissonance. After all, people’s behaviors can be affected by their moods or tastes, and world views can evolve over the years. Still, there are several telltale signs of cognitive dissonance that may help you figure out whether you or a loved one is experiencing this phenomenon.

  1. Discomfort. The first sign of cognitive dissonance is the discomfort a person feels due to their inner conflict. Look for signs of anxiety, stress, regret, shame, and embarrassment. 
  2. Lower sense of self. Cognitive dissonance can decrease self-worth or self-esteem by altering a person’s beliefs about themselves. You may even notice a lack of self-confidence when it comes to the situation surrounding the inner conflict. 
  3. Confusion. Cognitive dissonance can shake the core of some of our beliefs and lead to confusion. You may also experience indecisiveness.
  4. Coping beliefs. Cognitive dissonance may cause people to update their beliefs and values to match their behaviors in order to cope with their discomfort. 
  5. Ignoring the facts. Sometimes the truth hurts, especially if it contradicts what we believe. Thus, we may ignore or dismiss the facts to comfort our minds.
  6. Rationalization. If we make excuses for a specific behavior that we used to judge harshly in the past, it is probably because we are experiencing cognitive dissonance. 
  7. Fear of Judgment. If we are embarrassed by a particular action, we may do it secretly. For instance, a person may be ashamed of their smoking and hide that fact from their coworkers. Similarly, they may agree to do something to fit in. ​

Tips for Dealing With Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance isn’t an issue in most circumstances, and cognitive or behavioral changes can help you flourish. However, if your cognitive dissonance has a negative impact on you, such as you start feeling like you're losing yourself, justifying harmful behaviors, or showing signs of self-loathing, you may need to take action.

Here are a few suggestions to help you deal with cognitive dissonance in these situations.

Evaluate Your Beliefs
The first step to resolving your cognitive dissonance is determining its cause. You can do that by asking yourself which cognitions and behaviors have caused a conflict. Once you identify the conflicting thoughts and beliefs, try to rate their value to you. Are these cognitions very valuable to you? If so, you might want to adjust your behaviors to match them. If you aren’t fully committed to those ideas, thoughts, and beliefs, you might want to accept that it is time to let them go and replace them with those in sync with your actions.

Accept the Evidence
Sometimes internal conflicts arise when people’s ideas and beliefs are challenged by conflicting evidence. Although a healthy dose of skepticism is a good thing, many people become unreasonably defensive of their beliefs and resist the truth despite irrefutable evidence. If you have a hard time accepting a new belief that challenges your old ones, look at the evidence and seek out expert opinions.

It might be tempting to listen to political pundits or social media influencers, but chances are, those people might not have the educational background and years of professional experience to qualify as experts. For instance, if you’re struggling to accept a medical development, look for the opinions of medical professionals and research scientists. 

Don’t Rationalize
If you realize you are making excuses for a specific action or justifying destructive behaviors, you might be best served by stopping. Sometimes it is hard to accept it when we make mistakes or deal with other people’s bad behaviors. However, accepting the cold hard truth can be liberating and positively impact your long-term happiness. If you make a mistake, try to accept it and apologize if needed. If you’re making excuses for someone else’s behavior, you might be happier in the long run after you stop being their apologist. 

I hope you find these tips helpful. For additional suggestions, you can check out this video.

Video: Cognitive Dissonance: 5 Steps to a More Authentic Reality

Articles Related to Cognitive Dissonance

​Want to learn more about cognitive dissonance? Check out these articles:​

Books Related to Cognitive Dissonance​

If you’d like to keep learning more about cognitive dissonance, here are a few books that you might be interested in.

Final Thoughts on Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is everywhere, and we all experience some form of cognitive dissonance once in a while. Cognitive dissonance isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it enables us to adjust our opinions and beliefs according to lived experiences. However, in some cases, this phenomenon can have a negative impact. Knowing how to spot the signs of cognitive dissonance can help us deal with the mental discomfort caused by our internal conflicts in a healthier way. ​

Don't Forget to Grab Our Free eBook to Learn How to
Grow Your Wellness Business Exponentially!

References
Are You a Therapist, Coach, or Wellness Entrepreneur?
Grab Our Free eBook to Learn How to Grow Your Wellness Business Fast!
Key Articles:Content Packages:
Terms, Privacy & Affiliate Disclosure  |   About   |   Blog   |   Contact   |   FAQs
* The Berkeley Well-Being Institute. LLC is not affiliated with UC Berkeley.
Copyright © 2024, The Berkeley Well-Being Institute, LLC