What is Cognitive Dissonance?

Cognitive dissonance refers to the unpleasant emotion resulting from believing two conflicting things simultaneously. Studying cognitive dissonance is a widely followed field in social psychology. Cognitive dissonance can bring about absurd decision making as a person attempts to reconcile their contradicting beliefs.

Cognitive Dissonance manifests itself in people when they find themselves doing things that don't fit with their opinions or what they know.

Conflicting beliefs can be held simultaneously, often without an individual realizing it. This is true when the contradicting beliefs are based on different areas of life or different situations.

What is Cognitive Dissonance Theory? 

Cognitive Dissonance Theory (CDT), proposed by Leon Festinger (1957), explains the tendency of people to aim for consistency in their thoughts and the consequences of that tendency.

Festinger predicted that people will look for information that is likely to confirm and support existing attitudes and views, avoiding simultaneously information that is incongruent to existing attitudes and views.

CDT predicts that dissonance initiates an uncomfortable feeling that leads towards attitude change in order to reestablish consonance.

Types of Cognition

Festinger sees 3 different possible relationships among cognitions:

1. Consonance
2. Dissonance, and
3. Irrelevance. 

Basically two ideas that are consistent are consonant. If they are inconsistent they are dissonant. And if they are unrelated or unconnected they are irrelevant.