Developing Lifetime Action Plans: Cognitive Dissonance 

An Excerpt From the Curriculum of the 4th Grapevine

Cognitive Dissonance is the phenomenon that happens when a person accepts two conflicting thoughts or ideas as true. We see it everyday while observing other people’s behavior:

• the person who smokes yet readily admits that smoking is a serious health risk
• the overweight nutrition counselor who has notably poor eating habits
• the weekend motorcycle rider who doesn’t wear a helmet but clearly knows the risk of a fatal head injury
• the workaholic who misses his son’s games because he is working all day Saturday to finish a report, but knows that when this project is over there will probably be another one

Cognitive Dissonance is one of the most powerful mental forces precluding personal growth and change. But, if by definition, cognitive dissonance happens when a person already accepts two conflicting thoughts, how do you recognize when its happening to yourself?

Leon Festinger (1977) developed the theory and in his research he discovered that people behave in different ways to reduce dissonance:

• Manipulate the environment to change one or more of the facts;
• Gather information to support or discount one or more of the cognitive elements;
• Decrease the relative importance of both elements; and
• Deny, ignore, or distort knowledge of one of the cognitive elements.

 

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