Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is that uncomfortable feeling you have when you experience conflicting ideas or emotions. It is that sense that “something is not right.” Cognitive dissonance can be a nagging doubt, or it can rise to feelings of guilt or embarrassment.

Cognitive dissonance is a very useful part of our consciousness. It is a warning of conflict that allows us to make changes in the stories we tell ourselves so that our thinking becomes more consistent. It gives us notice of the need to adjust our beliefs to our experience. For mature people, it is a guide to growth and an aid to coping with the diversity of our world and the growing complexity of our thinking abilities.

However, some immature people, preferring the comforting simplicity of their preconceived notions or their group’s system of beliefs, resist adjusting their values and emotional habits. They allow their cognitive dissonance to erupt in irrational denial, raging anxiety, or anger directed at others. They may rationalize to conserve the  certainty and equilibrium that they prefer to feel. They may make excuses or blame others for their mistakes and the consequences of their ill-advised behavior. This is consistent with the principal that, “the more one represses (internal cognitive dissonance, in this case), the more one expresses (externally-directed hostility).”

This personal expression of outwardly-directed fear and anger also applies to the group dynamics of closed communities. Families, gangs, tribes, and religious groups often demonstrate the same kind of hostile attitudes toward outsiders. They reinforce their sense of “us” by denying empathic consideration toward “them.” This open hostility may progress to disrespect, intolerance, prejudice, bigotry and overt hatred.

“The biggest problem with the denizens of bullshit mountain is they act like their shit don’t stink. If they have success, they built it. If they failed, the government ruined it for them. If they get a break, they deserved it. If you get a break, its a handout and an entitlement. It’s a baffling, willfully blind cognitive dissonance…”
~Jon Stewart