Analysis: Fundamentally, it is how we respond to cognitive dissonance that determines whether we evolve and grow emotionally or whether we remain static and reactionary.

Have you ever heard of the concept of cognitive dissonance? It is arguably one of the most well-known, influential, debated, controversial, and researched theories in the field of social psychology.

It is a concept that is ever present in our lives, and one which most human beings experience daily because it mentally permeates our minutest to our most complex human layers of social interaction.

It affects how we relate with each other, how we view ourselves, and how we perceive the world and yet many of us react automatically to the influence of this philosophy without ever taking the time to critically evaluate its impact on our behaviour.

In simplistic terms, cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling that we experience when we identify a gap between what we believe is right and an act we have committed.

Ironically, deception was at the cornerstone of the human study that unearthed this theory in 1954 by well-known social psychologist Leon Festinger whose interest became piqued when he read an article in his local newspaper about an American cult spearheaded by a 'Mrs. Keech'.

The article outlined how 'Mrs Keech' received communications from extraterrestrial aliens informing her that the end of the world was at hand and that Doomsday would herald a great flood, in which only genuine believers of this cult, known as the seekers, would be saved.

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She attracted a large group of followers, many of whom left their jobs and parted company with their families. The most dedicated believers sold their possessions and their homes and offered up the proceeds as a sign of their commitment to the cause.

In turn, they naively hoped that their generous donations would save their lives when the apoplectic day arrived and that as committed followers they would be rescued, as promised, by a flying saucer.

Festinger, being a realist, was interested in how people would react when the prophecy failed and in order to observe the outcome, he along with some of his team presented themselves as true believers and infiltrated the cult.

They discovered that while less committed members were more inclined to acknowledge that they had been duped, committed members were more likely to re-interpret the prophecy failure as a sign that their unyielding faith had not only saved their lives, but had actually saved the world from being destroyed.

From this observation a new theory called cognitive dissonance emerged and as history has unfolded, it has offered us amazing insights and explanations into otherwise mystifying examples of human behaviou, such as how people can:

  • Rationalise cheating in exams, sports and relationships, etc.
  • Justify smoking when medical evidence clearly indicates that it is a high causal factor in reducing life expectancy.
  • Talk ourselves into feeling better after we make bad life decisions such as remaining in unhealthy relationships or continuing bad habits that reduce our quality of life.
  • Remain highly committed and loyal members of various groups such as the military or sporting or athletic teams, even though initially becoming a member was an extremely emotionally charged, excruciating process.

Imagine that you have just left your GP's surgery after receiving medical results which clearly indicate that you need to embark on a life-changing journey. So you pay €300 to join a slimming group for six months in order to lose two stone. As part of this course, you exercise six days a week and follow a strict nutritional calorific reduction diet.

After two weeks of following all the guidelines, you go food shopping and spot your favourite packet of chocolate bars, which you promptly put into your shopping basket. In your head you have already mentally justified this action.

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Even though you complete your purchase, you know you have just sabotaged all your good work and immediately you experience the discomfort, the guilt, and the shame that is conceptually known as cognitive dissonance.

You now have three ways that you can select to reduce the extent of this mental discomfort. You can:

  1. Change beliefs – this is where you can decide to ignore your GP's advice and mentally re-classify a healthy lifestyle as a lesser priority. And, while this is the simplest option for resolving dissonance it’s probably not the most common.
  2. Change actions - make sure that you never repeat this action again.
  3. Change perception of the action – this is where you rationalise your actions through a series of mental gymnastics. For example, you bought the chocolate bars to have something nice in the house in case someone called. In other words, you think about your action in a different manner or context so that it no longer appears to be inconsistent with your beliefs.

By understanding cognitive dissonance, we can stop the click whirr automatic reactions that occur mentally in our lives. But fundamentally, it is how we respond to cognitive dissonance, that determines whether we evolve and grow emotionally or whether we remain static and reactionary.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ