What Causes Cognitive Dissonance?
Cognitive dissonance is caused by two conflicting beliefs occurring at the same time. Or, when a person acts in ways that are inconsistent with their beliefs. Of course, for every cognitive element, there is another element that will be dissonant with it. But, as the magnitude and proportion of dissonant thoughts increase, so does our drive to reduce the discomfort.
Possible causes of cognitive dissonance include:
Forced compliance: Situations at work or school may conflict with one’s beliefs and elicit cognitive dissonance. For example, an environmentalist is assigned to represent an oil company. An individual in this situation may try to change their opinions in order to reduce discomfort.
Decision Making: When a decision must be made between two similarly appealing or unappealing choices, people tend to shift their beliefs for a few reasons: to increase their preference for the option they chose, devalue the option they did not choose, or both.3 For instance, if a high school student was accepted into two colleges that they liked equally, they would devalue the one they did not choose after making a decision.
Reading the news: People tend to avoid information that goes against their beliefs. Instead, they focus on information that confirms these, in order to reduce dissonance. When it comes to the media, people may ignore news sources that present contradictory information, and seek out others that are reinforcing.4
Reaching a difficult goal: Those who go through more effort to reach a goal are likely to value the goal more.4 This may be evident for those who have achieved degrees in higher education, survived hazing in Greek Life, or were accepted into an exclusive country club.
Addiction: Being addicted to cigarettes would cause cognitive dissonance in someone who values their health. Individuals in this situation might try to focus on the belief that smoking helps them eat less unhealthy food, in order to justify their behavior.