cognitive dissonance

English

Etymology

Coined by American psychologist Leon Festinger. Dissonance was chosen to avoid the logical connotations of inconsistency.

Pronunciation

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Noun

cognitive dissonance (countable and uncountable, plural cognitive dissonances)

  1. (psychology) A conflict or anxiety resulting from inconsistencies between one's beliefs and one's actions or other beliefs.[1][2][3]
    • 1957, Leon Festinger, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, Row, Peterson and Company, page 3:
      Cognitive dissonance can be seen as an antecedent condition which leads to activity oriented toward dissonance reduction just as hunger leads to activity oriented toward hunger reduction. It is a very different motivation from what psychologists are used to dealing with but, as we shall see, nonetheless powerful.
    • 1989, Marc Galanter, Cults and New Religious Movements: A Report of the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., →ISBN, page 102:
      In the state of ultimate commitment, a true believer feels better for having raised and or given money to the cause. It also aids in overcoming cognitive dissonance (the cause "must be" worthwhile to have attracted these funds). All kinds of rationales are given and accepted for the displayed wealth of the leaders, but it is fascinating to see the blind acceptance being replaced by questioning and scorn as the hypocrisies and double standards begin to make themselves felt.
    • 1999, Jean-Marie Abgrall, Soul Snatchers: The Mechanics of Cults, Algora Publishing, →ISBN, page 84:
      If a given activity fails and it causes the death of a follower, it is because the rest of the group had insufficient faith or that it was done too late. Should the extraterrestrial beings not descend at the appointed time, then it may also be explained as due to their being frightened by the non-believers. Thus all plots and prophecies become possible — the capacity to reduce cognitive dissonance is the cement of the cult when it confronts reality, and this is why the layman is helpless before the nonsense that is spread by these speeches.
    • 2001, Kenneth S. Bordens, Irwin A. Horowitz, Social Psychology, Lawrence Erlbaum, →ISBN, page 223:
      By turning over all their possessions, members were making an irreversible commitment to the cult. Once such a commitment is made, people are unlikely to abandon positive attitudes toward the group (Festinger, Riecken, & Schachter, 1982). After expending so much effort, questioning commitment would create cognitive dissonance (Osherow, 1988). It is inconsistent to prove devotion to a belief by donating all of your possessions and then to abandon those beliefs. In other words, to a large extent, cult members persuade themselves.
    • 2003, Bernard Spilka, The Psychology of Religion, The Guilford Press, →ISBN, page 356:
      Much of the research literature has reintroduced classic cognitive dissonance theory to provide theoretical justification for a sequence of behavior change–belief change. The focus has been upon maintenance of conversion within groups when prophecy appears to fail.
    • 2009, “Researching Scientology: Perceptions, Premises, Promises, and Problematics, by Douglas E. Cowan”, in James R. Lewis, editor, Scientology, Oxford University Press, USA, →ISBN, page 56:
      As a low-level experience of cognitive dissonance, how does one maintain faith in an organization when some of the most basic claims are contradicted by evidence and ordinary experience?
    • 2025, Karen Hao, Empire of AI, New York City: Penguin Press, →ISBN:
      To live in San Francisco and work in tech is to confront daily the cognitive dissonance between the future and the present, between narrative and reality.
    • 2025 December 19, Kashmir Hill, “Why Do A.I. Chatbots Use ‘I’?”, in The New York Times‎[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
      They say that making these systems act like humanlike entities, rather than as tools with no inner life, creates cognitive dissonance for users about what exactly they are interacting with and how much to trust it.
      (Can we archive this URL?)

Translations

See also

References

  1. ^ Corsini, Raymond J. (2001), The Dictionary of Psychology, Routledge, →ISBN, page 180
  2. ^ Modeste, Naomi N. with Teri S. Tamayose (2004), Dictionary of Public Health Promotion and Education: Terms and Concepts, Jossey-Bass, →ISBN, page 19
  3. ^ Danesi, Marcel (2000), Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics, Media, and Communication, University of Toronto Press, →ISBN, page 53
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