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What is cognitive dissonance?

Cognitive dissonance is mental discomfort which results from two contradictory information. Most often, it is a factual element that contradicts a belief. Rationality would like us to question the belief, but Leon Festinger notes that this is rarely the case, and classifies in his book the different mental strategies operated to lift the contradiction.

Motivations linked to cognitive dissonance

Questioning a belief often leads to putting a social group on the back. Now we have seen on the page concerning the question 'What are the consequences of social ambition?'That alliances are the major concern of humans, much more than rationality. Cognitive dissonance is generally resolved in the practice of preserving social position and good self -image, to the detriment of rationality and facts.

Effects of cognitive dissonance

Repeated over the years, this way of resolving cognitive dissonance gradually leads to lying to oneself, that is to say very concretely harming others, while being even more aware of it.

When we add generalized nepotism and cognitive dissonance, we see that the atrocities of the world are not the effects of a few madmen such as Hitler, but rather the effect of the behavior of the majority which favors the game of alliances, and A good conscience can be bought cheaply, via cognitive dissonance. It is a vicious circle: since cognitive dissonance makes it possible to no longer see the consequences, especially since they are indirect, there is no need to fight against it, therefore the horror can continue without limit since the A mass of people who are really responsible place the blame on a few elites or populists whose power in fact only comes from the passivity of these masses.

The effect is just as disastrous at the family level: the abuse of some (the aggressor A) is protected by others (the complacent C) to the detriment of the most vulnerable (the victim B). Technically, C wishes to continue allying with A, therefore does not wish to combat his abuses as morality would dictate. To resolve the cognitive dissonance that results from this situation, C puts in place a lying discourse to justify A's attitude, which he tries to impose on B. Victim B ultimately finds himself not only a victim of the behavior of the aggressor A, but in addition the complacent C exert psychological pressure on him to make him deny this reality, thus contributing to making him lose confidence in his own judgment. I define this as infernal triangle of cognitive dissonance. A very common case of this triangle is a mother who otherwise loves her children B, but who, faced with a harmful husband A, will adopt role C making her pathological towards them.

Go deeper

To better understand cognitive dissonance, consult the book A theory of cognitive dissonance by Léon Festinger, then refer to chapter 3 'Cognitive dissonance' from the book From capital to reason.

The infernal triangle of cognitive dissonance is more widely addressed in the question 'Put an end to the abusive use of psychotropic drugs and psychotherapies'.

Concerning the effects of cognitive dissonance, it is also useful to consult the book Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt.

Finally, cognitive dissonance, and above all its little rational resolution, correspond to a behavior observed in humans. Its origin is probably to be sought in the dual nature of the human mind, where reason coexists with the cognitive-affective system, as exposed to the article Should you listen to your emotions?

↣ Wikipedia article concerning cognitive dissonance

↣ Wikipedia article concerning motivated reasoning