Cognitive Dissonance Flashcards
Cognitive dissonance definition
Psychological tension that occurs when thoughts, feelings and/or behavior do not align.
Discomfort experienced when having conflicting beliefs/behaviors, often occurs when acting in a way that contradicts our beliefs.
Possible reasons for cognitive dissonance
Aware of potential consequences and inconsistency of behavior when deciding to act
Cannot sufficiently justify why you performed a behavior
Inconsistent amounts of effort put into something and the outcome (don’t study but assume to get high marks)
Types of cognitive dissonance
Type of belief - personal belief = more/greater cognitive dissonance
Value of belief - beliefs valued more by people - greater dissonance
Level of conflict - greater conflict between beliefs = greater dissonance
Avoiding/reducing feeling of cognitive dissonance
Changing thought to align with behaviour/changing behavior to align with though
Can not always align thoughts, behaviour and/or feelings - use cognitive bias
