Editing Cognitive dissonance (section)

{{Short description|Mental phenomenon of holding contradictory beliefs}}
{{Psychology sidebar}}In the field of [[psychology]], '''cognitive dissonance''' is described as a mental phenomenon in which people unknowingly hold fundamentally conflicting cognitions.<ref>{{Cite book |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1chs6tk |title=Cognitive Dissonance: Reexamining a Pivotal Theory in Psychology |date=2019 |publisher=American Psychological Association |isbn=978-1-4338-3010-5 |edition=2|jstor=j.ctv1chs6tk }}</ref> Being confronted by situations that challenge this dissonance may ultimately result in some change in their cognitions or actions to cause greater alignment between them so as to reduce this dissonance.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |title=Cognitive Dissonance: Reexamining a Pivotal Theory in Psychology |year=2019 |publisher=American Psychological Association |isbn=978-1-4338-3077-8 |editor-last=Harmon-Jones |editor-first=Eddie |edition=2nd |location=Washington, DC}}</ref> 

Relevant items of cognition include peoples' actions, feelings, [[ideas]], [[beliefs]], [[Value (ethics)|values]], and things in the [[Natural environment|environment]]. Cognitive dissonance exists without signs but surfaces through [[psychological stress]] when persons participate in an action that goes against one or more of conflicting things. According to this theory, when an action or idea is psychologically inconsistent with the other, people automatically try to resolve the conflict, usually by reframing a side to make the combination congruent. Discomfort is triggered by beliefs clashing with new information or by having to conceptually resolve a matter that involves conflicting sides, whereby the individual tries to find a way to reconcile contradictions to reduce their discomfort.<ref name=":6" />

In ''[[When Prophecy Fails|When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group That Predicted the Destruction of the World]]'' (1956) and ''A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance'' (1957), [[Leon Festinger]] proposed that human beings strive for internal psychological consistency to function mentally in the [[Reality|real world]].<ref name=":72">{{Cite book |last=Festinger |first=Leon |title=A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=1957}}</ref> Persons who experience internal inconsistency tend to become psychologically uncomfortable and are motivated to reduce the cognitive dissonance.<ref name=":6" /> They tend to make changes to [[Self-justification|justify]] the stressful behavior, either by adding new parts to the cognition causing the psychological dissonance ([[Rationalization (psychology)|rationalization]]), believing that "people get what they deserve" ([[just-world fallacy]]), taking in specific pieces of information while rejecting or ignoring others ([[selective perception]]), or by avoiding circumstances and contradictory information likely to increase the magnitude of the cognitive dissonance ([[confirmation bias]]).<ref>{{Cite book |title=Social psychology |date=2003 |publisher=Sage Publ |isbn=978-0-7619-4044-9 |editor-last=Hogg |editor-first=Michael A. |series=Sage benchmarks in psychology |location=London}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/ocm57626418 |title=Consciousness & emotion: agency, conscious choice, and selective perception |date=2005 |publisher=John Benjamins Pub |isbn=978-1-58811-596-6 |editor-last=Ellis |editor-first=Ralph D. |series=Consciousness & emotion book series |location=Amsterdam ; Philadelphia |oclc=ocm57626418 |editor-last2=Newton |editor-first2=Natika}}</ref> Festinger explains avoiding cognitive dissonance as "Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point."<ref name=":05">{{Cite book |title=The psychology book |date=2012 |publisher=DK |isbn=978-0-7566-8970-4 |editor-last=Collin |editor-first=Catherine |edition=1st American |location=London New York Melbourne |editor-last2=Benson |editor-first2=Nigel C. |editor-last3=Ginsburg |editor-first3=Joannah |editor-last4=Grand |editor-first4=Voula |editor-last5=Lazyan |editor-first5=Merrin |editor-last6=Weeks |editor-first6=Marcus}}</ref>