Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort people feel when new information contradicts their existing beliefs. People can resolve this by changing their beliefs, adding new ones, or abandoning old ones. Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance was developed in the 1950s and was demonstrated by a cult that believed aliens would destroy the earth. When this didn’t happen, they created a new belief to maintain their original idea. Cognitive dissonance is a common occurrence in everyday life and is an essential aspect of learning.
When people learn something that doesn’t agree with what they currently know to be true, they can do one of many things. They can change the first idea to fit the second idea just introduced; they can add another idea to the first two, to bridge the difference; or they may abandon one of two ideas. All of these are reactions to a state called cognitive dissonance, a mental feeling of discomfort or stress that, according to some psychologists, people would do anything to avoid.
A psychologist named Leon Festinger developed the theory of cognitive dissonance in the mid-1950s. He considered a cult that expected aliens to destroy the earth at a particular date and time and were deeply invested in this belief. When this event did not occur, the cult members did not abandon their original idea, but fixed it by claiming that the aliens did not come because God, seeing how devoted this small group of humans were, gave his divine protection to the Earth. The group then became more fervent in their beliefs.
The members of this cult were protecting their cognitive consonance, the integrity of their knowledge, by creating a new idea that would allow their beliefs and the material truth of a world not destroyed by aliens to coexist. Most things people know are not that closely related. These ideas can operate together simultaneously in a state of cognitive irrelevance that poses no challenge to the mind. Thinking that Boy Scouts are well behaved and that the gloves are warm are two ideas that, taken together, do not create tension, for example. But if a rude boy scout were to happen, cognitive dissonance ensues. It will take the mind to sort this out somehow, either by revising the high Boy Scout opinion previously held, imagining that this Boy Scout won’t be a Boy Scout for long, or forgetting that the bad Boy Scout ever existed.
Cognitive dissonance occurs whenever a new concept varies from a related previous one, and this occurs every day. Cognitive dissonance, in fact, is an essential aspect of learning. Most of the time, the intensity of the cognitive dissonance isn’t great and the tension resolves easily. When conflicting notions closely touch a person’s opinion of themselves or an issue they consider important, however, the cognitive dissonance is more painful.
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