Editing Cognitive dissonance (section)

=== COVID-19 ===
The COVID-19 pandemic, an extreme public health crisis, cases rose to the hundred million and deaths at nearly four million worldwide. Reputable health organizations such as Lyu and Wehby studied the effects of wearing a face mask on the spread of COVID-19. They found evidence that suggests that COVID patients were reduced by 2%, averting nearly 200,000 cases by the end of the following month.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last1=Pearce |first1=Logan |last2=Cooper |first2=Joel |date=2021-09-03 |title=Fostering COVID-19 Safe Behaviors Using Cognitive Dissonance |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/01973533.2021.1953497 |journal=Basic and Applied Social Psychology |volume=43 |issue=5 |pages=267–282 |doi=10.1080/01973533.2021.1953497 |s2cid=238584894 |issn=0197-3533|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Despite this fact having been proven and encouraged by major health organizations, there was still a resistance to wearing the mask and keeping a safe distance away from others. When the COVID-19 vaccine was eventually released to the public, this only made the resistance stronger.

The Ad Council launched an extensive campaign advertising for people to follow the health guidelines established by the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention|CDC]] and [[World Health Organization|WHO]] and attempted to persuade people to become vaccinated eventually. After taking polls on public opinion about safety measures to prevent the spreading of the virus, it showed that between 80% and 90% of adults in the United States agree with these safety procedures and vaccines being necessary.<ref name=":3" /> The cognitive dissonance arose when people took polls on public behavior. Despite the general opinion that wearing a mask, social distancing, and receiving the vaccine are all things the public should be doing, only 50% of responders admitted to doing these things all or even most of the time.<ref name=":3" /> People believe that partaking in preventative measures is essential, but fail to follow through with actually doing them. To convince people to behave in line with their beliefs, it is essential to remind people of a fact that they believe is true, and then remind them of times in the past when they went against this. The hypocrisy paradigm is known for inconsistent cognition resolution through a change in behavior. Data were collected by participants that were asked to write statements supporting mask use and social distancing, which is something they agreed with. Then the participants were&nbsp;told to think about recent situations in which they failed to do this. The prediction was that the dissonance would be a motivating factor in getting people to be compliant with COVID-19 safety measures. After contacting participants one week later, they reported behaviors, including social distancing and mask-wearing.<ref name=":3" />