The term cognitive dissonance has deep roots in the classic social psychology. In 1957 Leon Festinger introduced this theory in his book “Cognitive Dissonance”. The book contain the detail explanation about what cognitive dissonance is and how to cope with cognitive dissonance. The term cognitive dissonance can be defined as the conflict between the thoughts, emotions and behavior of an individual for instance if a smoker have two inconsistent thoughts, the first one is that he smokes regularly and the second one is that smoking can cause serious health issues it means he is experiencing cognitive dissonance. As we studied earlier that our overt and covert behaviors are interrelated; one has influence over other. Therefore, inconsistency in our thoughts and attitude lead towards discomfort. It is the instinctive belief of human that they consider themselves good, moral and rational beings. And because of such assumed belief cognitive dissonance causes emotional discomfort. Though, no one likes to experience discomfort because it is an unpleasant feeling. So, what should people do when they experience cognitive dissonance? Obviously they must try to reduce it.
Leon Festinger explained 4 ways to resolve cognitive dissonance these include, changing a thought, changing behavior, adding a thought and trivializing the inconsistency,
Changing a Thought
Leon Festinger argues that one way to resolve cognitive dissonance is to change one of those inconsistent thought. Let’s continue with case of smoker who is experiencing cognitive dissonance. How can he resolve cognitive dissonance by changing an inconsistent thoughts? He should start believing that smoking is not unhealthy or it will not cause any serious harm to my health. By changing one of inconsistent cognitions smoker would restore cognitive consistency.
Changing Behavior
The second way to resolve cognitive inconsistency is to change a behavior. In case of smoker, how can he resolve cognitive dissonance by changing behavior? As his behavior of smoking is inconsistent with his thought that smoking can cause serious health issues. If he acknowledges his though and quit smoking the inconsistency between cognition and behavior will be restored.
Adding a Thought
According to Leon Festinger, the third way to resolve cognitive dissonance to add new thought which could rationalize inconsistent thoughts. So, in the case of smoker how can he resolve cognitive inconsistency by adding rational thought? If smoker acknowledge that he smokes regularly and smoking can cause serious health issues but, I eat healthy food and workout regularly due to which smoking will not cause any health issues. Adding a rational thought of eating healthy and regular workout would restore cognitive consistency.
Trivializing the Inconsistency
The fourth way to resolve cognitive dissonance is trivializing the inconsistency. In the case of smoker how can he resolve cognitive inconsistency by trivializing the inconsistency? If he does not care about the fact that smoking is bad for health and keep smoking, it will restore cognitive consistency.
Written by; Khushdil Khan Kasi