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The reading of obscene sexual words to be initiated to the discussion involved a greater investment by the subjects than reading non-obscene words. Listening to a dull discussion was not worth the embarrassment of reading the obscene words, resulting in cognitive dissonance. The strong initiation subjects convinced themselves that the discussion was more interesting than it actually was to make their effort to feel worthwhile.

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Think about choosing what to wear in the morning or what to eat for breakfast. You may experience more dissonance if you’re in an indecisive mood or if (in the case of the outfit) you have an important presentation that day. But most of the time, you’ve resolved and forgotten about any conflict either of those decisions caused by the time you’ve started your to-do list for the day, Leno says. If you’re conflicted about the choice, you’re experiencing cognitive dissonance and addiction — the discomfort, tension, or anxiety that results from holding two conflicting beliefs at the same time. (1) “It’s not a bad thing, although it kind of gets a bad rap,” says Michele Leno, PhD, a psychologist and founder of DML Psychological Services in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

• Once a choice has been made, however, people need to find a way to reduce these feelings of discomfort.
• Indeed, decades of research have investigated the nature and structure of human emotions, and it seems senseless to ignore this work in the examination of the CDS.
• Your health and wellness is unique to you, and the products and services we review may not be right for your circumstances.
• Cognitive dissonance happens when you hold two conflicting thoughts in your mind at the same time — like loving both hamburgers and cows.

Limits on the Evidences for Cognitive Dissonance Aversiveness

Confirmation bias occurs when additional information confirms what you already believe – you favor and accept that information as a result of a bias. Cognitive dissonance occurs when information challenges your beliefs, and you choose to ignore it or even consider it. This “guilt factor” is a common side effect of cognitive dissonance. Depending on the seriousness of the behavior, people may also feel immoral, or they might develop a negative self-worth. That’s because that discomfort brings a host of less-than-ideal feelings with it.

Induce effort

The concept of cognitive dissonance is nicely explained in this YouTube video by social psychologist Andy Luttrell. Disposing of trash outside, even when knowing this is against the law, wrong, and is harmful for the environment, is a prominent example of cognitive dissonance, especially if the person feels bad after littering but continues to do so. However, this mode of dissonance reduction frequently presents problems for people, as it is often difficult for people to change well-learned behavioral responses (e.g., giving up smoking). Female participants were informed they would be helping out in a study funded by several manufacturers.

• While cognitive dissonance is often described as something widely and regularly experienced, efforts to capture it in studies don’t always work, so it could be less common than has been assumed.
• In other words, they were more likely than participants in the other two conditions to increase the attractiveness of the chosen alternative and to decrease the attractiveness of the unchosen alternative.
• To resolve cognitive dissonance, a person can aim to ensure that their actions are consistent with their values or vice versa.
• Let’s say it’s a particularly cold and dreary month of the year and someone who typically sees herself as a social butterfly finds herself spending a lot of evenings alone at home.
• Or maybe you learn a new piece of information that disagrees with a long-standing belief or opinion.

Because it is something a person feels internally, it is not possible to physically observe dissonance. As such, no set of external signs can reliably indicate a person is experiencing cognitive dissonance. The dissonance between two contradictory ideas, or between an idea and a behavior, creates discomfort. Festinger argued that cognitive dissonance is more intense when a person holds many dissonant views and those views are important to them.

People who are flexible enough to adjust their thoughts or live with “gray areas” may not have a strong response when they notice the discrepancies. “Some people may experience it more intensely or frequently if they have a high need for consistency in their lives,” Dr. Leikam says. And recognizing and addressing those negative thoughts or emotions is important. To ease the psychological pain of rejecting one choice (FOMO, anyone?) we often start justifying our decision. When we do this by thinking up positives for our choice and negatives for the other option, it’s called the “spreading of alternatives.” Your brain feels better when you can align your behavior with your values. Recently my colleagues and I demonstrated a causal link between pMFC activity and the attitude change required to reduce dissonance.

However, the characteristics of the CDS are not well-understood today, aside from a general consensus that it should involve a form of negative arousal. For the purpose of developing a relevant instrument, we believe that there is much to gain from taking a step back and examining the characteristics of the CDS in a more global framework. While https://ecosoberhouse.com/ theory has rarely been linked to psychological models of emotions, these models can be used to better describe the nature of the CDS. Indeed, decades of research have investigated the nature and structure of human emotions, and it seems senseless to ignore this work in the examination of the CDS. What is the neural explanation for this common type of psychological stress?

The mild initiation group did not invest as much to listen to the discussion, so when they found it to be boring they did not feel cheated. In The Effect of Severity of Initiation on Liking for a Group (1956), to qualify for admission to listen in on a discussion, two groups of people underwent an embarrassing initiation of varied psychological severity. The “strong initiation” group of subjects were to read aloud twelve sexual words considered obscene. The “mild initiation” group of subjects were to read aloud twelve sexual words not considered obscene. After reading the list of words, participants were given headphones to listen in on an animal-sexuality discussion that they were told was occurring in the next room.

Discussing discrepant behavior