Cognitive Dissonance: Your Response to Conflicting Beliefs

Cognitive dissonance is based on the idea that when two ideas are psychologically not consistent with each other, we change them and make them consistent. If the two conflicting ideas are deeply ingrained in our identity, this mental imbalance can become overwhelming and intoxicate our thoughts — and as a result we may believe even the most absurd conspiracy theories. Watch this video about the origins of this idea and its original research from 1954.

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COLLABORATORS
Script: Jonas Koblin
Artist: Pascal Gaggelli
Voice: Matt Abbott
Coloring: Nalin
Editing: Peera Lertsukittipongsa
Head of Partnership Programme: Selina Bador
Fact checking: Ludo Saint Amour di Chanaz
Production: Bianka
Sound Design: Miguel Ojeda

SOUNDTRACKS
Toys Are Alive - Studio Le Bus
Magical Keys - Studio Le Bus
Terror Avenue - Jack Pierce

DIG DEEPER with these top videos, games and resources:

Read about the meat paradox and how your brain wrestles with the ethics of eating animals in this piece by The Conversation.

Read a research paper on why reasoning is more strongly related to implausible than plausible conspiracy beliefs.

Watch an interview with the author of The Intelligent Trap on why smart people make dumb mistakes. Or read his book.

Read this overview on why people believe in conspiracy theories.

SOURCES

CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
To learn more on suggested classroom activities for this topic, check out our website!

CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
01:08 The full story
01:38 Cognitive dissonance
02:41 The cult observation
03:17 Festinger's assessment
04:41 What do you think?
05:04 Patron credits
05:13 Ending

#psychology #cognitivedissonance #sproutslearning #explainer

[Whizzer]

Don't talk at them, ask them questions to lead them to the source. It's hard to be mad at the one asking questions when you come to the conclusions yourself.

[kiyopon]

Because of this video I will able to not engage in arguments with idiots on internet.

I finally understand how it works, it saved lot of time and energy.

[charliepeterson]

I was raised in a Pentecostal Cult. From birth, me and my siblings prayed for half an hour every morning before breakfast. I even prayed willingly for an hour or more a day as I grew older. We fasted yearly from 8 years old. We went to church at least twice a week, and attended regular church activities. I spent my whole life strongly believing in God, and our Christian faith. We had no birthday parties, I was kept up hours past bed time every week for church. I was told not to believe in evolution, that the world was only 6, 000 years old and that man kind was created in Gods image. That the world was filled with evil people, and that I should walk in God by not smoking or drinking, reading the bible, praying daily and fellowshipping weekly. I was also told to marry someone in the church so they don’t lead me astray. I was also told that if I prayed miracles would happen. People often shared the same "miracle" stories and continued year after year praying for healings that would never come.

Yet as I became older, I noticed the world my parents and everyone in the church had described my whole life, wasn’t the world I observed. This was my experience of "cognitive dissonance". I remember walking outside for hours every day thinking about evolution, and trying to understand all the contradictions in the Christian explanations I had been given. I started noticing how ridiculous the beliefs where of these people, and how they didn’t even line up with each other. I asked the question "if the bible is true, why can’t Christian’s agree on what it says?” They all claim to get their answers from God, why isn’t he telling them all the same story? My Dad’s answer was simple "I know I am following God, and God says this. So if anyone disagrees then they’re walking in the flesh." He believes the way is strait and narrow, and only a few are chosen. At 25 I finally left the church and it was a breath of fresh air. Oddly enough, nothing bad happened to me (yet) like they warned. I lost my closest friends and my family no longer speak with me despite my best efforts. They think I’m going to turn out "nasty", but unfortunately for them, they’re still waiting for that day. People have been waiting for 2, 000 years for Jesus Christ to return. And my family strongly believes it will be happening in their lifetime. I guess we’ll find out 🤷‍♂️

[najx]

I find the experiment of payments the more intuitive to explain this phenomenon. There was two kind of participants doing VERY boring tasks. One was paid 5 buck while the others 100. Which ones rated the task more fun? The ones that were paid less. The idea is that doing such boring task for little reward resulted in a cognitive dissonance which was resolved if you think the task is kinda fun. However the ones that were paid more rated the task very boring since they were justified because they "were paid to do it". (all this is from memory you are welcome to search the original paper, I may be wrong in details)

[rosettesionne]

I am living my most intense cognitive dissonance I could never imagine. I faced an issue with one of my professors who openly humiliated me because I couldn't do what he wanted he said I had mental problems because of it and destroyed my reputation another one insulted me and attacked my sanity because I got angry and confronted him about his behavior but when I complained every body minimized what they did by saying they were in a bad mood and putting the fault in me that I surely did something harmful for them to treat me that way... Okay I said to myself as long as I didn't anger them they will treat me with respect (I knew nothing about codependency at this time) but one thing I noticed is that when people makes me angry and that I reacted I was blamed with my anger and heard words like respect your elders or honor your parents even if their own behaviors were extremely disrespectful but when I did something that angered them I was severely humiliated and they used my behavior as an excuse to justify their reaction... So at the end is it normal to get angry when annoyed or is it abnormal my brain is stuck

[redkent]

I started really learning about cognitive dissonance a few months ago and was able to see how it appears in everyone's lives around and within myself. I compare it with studying film in school, after a while you watch movies differently, watching the camera angles and their meaning, the pacing and the backgrounds etc. I feel like I've become that way with cognitive dissonance now. When it appears it has become easier to deal with because of the practice applied to small and seemingly inadequate things such as cleaning, dishes, laundry, food, exercise, learning (learning has by far been one of the biggest, learning the foundations of everything around - like soil - strengthens your foundation in logic).

Once you are able to start dealing with the dissonance appropriately, through wholesome actions, then it doesn't create any negative justifications. You become less hypocritical, hateful and jealous. I've lived in Thailand for 8 years and as with most foreigners that come, I've never learned Thai (until recently). I realised that in the early days, every foreigner I met would say the same - it's too difficult, I have enough to get around. But logically of course learning Thai has every benefit possible, but the justification of difficulty is very easy to choose not to do something. And hearing it from other people who were here longer than me made it easy to give the justification credence. I broke down the illogical justification and started learning progressively and my Thai has improved tenfold in a short time, it also inspired me to diversify learning to more things as language teaches a lot about the power of learning - going from looking at symbols (thai script) and over months watching it become sounds in my own mind.

Being able to choose the right path to cognitive consonance is the first step in being able to undo past & continuous negative justifications that have formed unwholesome habits, thoughts, attitudes and beliefs.

[logicaldennis]

This is also used in business, Have you ever been shopping and picked up an item, but couldn’t make up your mind? Should I or shouldn’t I buy it? To reduce your cognitive dissonance, the store allows for returns, meaning you are more likely not to fret over buying the item.

[michaelt.wardlespider]

It seems that cognitive dissonance is at the root of a large portion of the political turmoil which threatens to tear the world asunder. Perhaps I am mistaken...

[whatablissfullife]

“A life unexamined is not a life worth living”

[skybluskyblueify]

I think if the people are family or close friends of the person experiencing long-term cognitive dissonance despite the proof you show them if you can tolerate their behavior you can hang around and be ready to support them when they do have doubts. I think asking minor somewhat innocent questions that pertain to slightly related phenomena you can plant doubts in their minds over time. You have to be sneaky as to not get them to be defensive yet still plant doubts in their thinking.

[tosreturns]

Recognizing your own weaknesses and biases is essential to reaching the truth.

My weakness is with certain people and situations. For example, if I make a new friend, but that person is destructive to me, I'll make excuses for them so that I can keep that friendship that I want to have, even though it's probably not really a friendship and most definitely something I must not defend.

It's about wanting a specific outcome.

Others do this with things like the pandemic. When they "did their own research, " what they did was use Google to search for things they already agreed with.

This is why the Scientific Method was set up in a way where one first makes a hypothesis and then sets out to prove it WRONG. That's because the hypothesis contains what a person THINKS they see, or what they WANT to see. If they set out to prove what they see right, then they will twist reality until they get the results that they want.

Hypothesizing and then setting out to prove one's self correct is what is done in religion, because they want their beliefs to be true. But wanting your beliefs to be true and the actual truth are sometimes two completely different things.

[KingsguardRP]

You cant change a mind not based in reality. If a person doesnt acknowledge facts, logic or reason, you cannot persuade them.

[michaelmccarthy]

The way I cope is by telling myself that people are complicated and it doesn't mean certain beliefs conflict, you just have to tip toe around those complications because nobody is perfect.

[ayyymacaroni]

I've felt so much dissonance in my life that I resorted to compulsive rituals and habits to keep myself sane. I still have to stop myself from tapping flagpoles, jumping over sidewalk cracks 3 times, or slapping a door every time I open or close it.

[SkyGuardianHelmet]

It's not only ideas but even our memories. It's kinda horrifying that sometimes we even alter our memories to keep the image(or "conviction") we have of ourselves intact... and that even knowing that this exists we do it again and again.
And yea it's not only some people who experience it, many or even everyone

[Shaiyene]

People cling to their beliefs in order to avoid being challenged by anything that conflicts with their current ethics and morality. An example would be using your religious beliefs to excuse your discomfort with anyone who is different from you and justify the feeling that you never need to challenge your biases.

[blacksherif]

It's always nice to hear this channel give such amazing content. 😊

[wuthurer]

That shot of Randy looking at Rollins after the war games match is perfection

[gamezswinger]

Experience can do the trick, but only if the person is willing to step back and understand it. Sadly, most people don't have time to step back and reflect.

[danieljohndombek]

When an honest man discovers he is mistaken, he will either cease to be mistaken or cease to be honest.
-- Anonymous