#cognative dissonance

Some signs you may be experiencing cognitive dissonance may include:

discomfort before making a decision

feelings of guilt over past decisions

shame or embarrassment regarding a decision and hiding said decisions from others as a result

justification or rationalization of behavior

doing something out of social pressure, not true interest

Many situations can trigger cognitive dissonance. These can include:

receiving new information

experiencing social pressure

needing to make a choice

Some effects of cognitive dissonance can includeTrusted Source:

anxiety

regret

low self-worth

shame

stress

reduced self-esteem

anger

In addition to these emotional experiences, cognitive dissonance can also inspire a change in your behavior or beliefs. Some of these changes can be positive, such as shifting problematic beliefs or harmful habits.Share on PinterestIllustration by Brittany England

Here’s a look at some everyday examples of cognitive dissonance and how you might come to terms with them.

1. Picking up after your dog

Let’s say you have a dog that you take for daily walks around your neighborhood. Like any responsible dog owner, you carry plastic bags and always clean up after your dog.

One day, you realize you forgot the bags while halfway through the walk. And your dog chooses that moment to do his business.

You take a quick look along the street. No one’s around, so you call your dog and hustle away. Once home, you begin to feel guilty. You know it’s not right to leave your dog’s mess. What if someone steps in it or it ruins your neighbor’s garden?

“But it’s just the one time,” you tell yourself. You ran out of bags. You’ll replace them and always pick up after your dog in the future.

Besides, it’s not like you’re the only one who does it. You’ve seen other dogs’ messes in the neighborhood. If other people don’t pick up after their dogs, why should you have to?

2. Getting enough exercise

Chances are, you value your health. You may make a conscious effort to choose nutritious foods, try to avoid processed foods and soda, and shoot for eight hours of sleep every night.

But you spend most of your day sitting at your desk. You tell yourself it’s OK since you’re taking care of your health in other ways. You still feel guilty, though, because you know it’s important to be active.

You even joined a gym a while back, but you stopped going. Every time you see the membership tag on your keychain, it reminds you of that pesky truth — that exercise is part of a healthy lifestyle.

Finally, you decide to go to the gym. You start going to bed earlier and get up with enough time to work out. It’s hard at first, but instead of feeling guilty when you see the gym keychain, you feel proud of yourself.

3. Moving for love

You and your partner live in a large city. You love city life and can’t imagine living anywhere else. One day, your partner comes home from work with some news. They’ve received a promotion — in a small town four hours away. You’ll have to move.

You feel unhappy. You don’t want to move, but your partner is excited about the promotion and you want them to be happy. Little by little, you begin to consider the pros of living in a small town. You even read some articles on small-town living.

Small towns are safer, you think. There won’t be city traffic. The cost of living will be lower. You might even be able to get around town without having a car. Finally, you remind yourself that four hours isn’t so far after all. You’ll still be able to visit your friends and family often.

4. Being productive at work

At work, you have a fairly private cubicle. Your computer use isn’t monitored, and you often find yourself browsing the internet or even catching up on TV shows instead of working.

Sure, you eventually get your work done, but you know you could be doing more. You might feel guilty, knowing you’d be in trouble if anyone found out. But whenever you get bored, you find yourself online again.

You read an article about workplace productivity that says people are more productive when they work in short bursts and take frequent breaks. “I’m just increasing my productivity,” you tell yourself.

After all, you rarely take time off. And when you do work, you work hard. You should get to relax, too.

5. Eating meat

You consider yourself an animal loverTrusted Source. You’ve always had pets and, whenever possible, purchase products that aren’t tested on animals.

But you also enjoy eating meat, though you know some animals are kept in inhumane conditions before being used for meat. You feel guilty but can’t afford to buy meat from pasture-raised or grass-fed animals. And a meat-free diet isn’t realistic for you.

In the end, you decide to start buying cage-free eggs and plan to replace one of your meat purchases each shopping trip with humanely raised meat or a meat substitute, like tofu or tempeh. This reduces your guilt and helps you bridge the gap between your love of animals and your diet.

Cognitive dissonance isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it can prompt you to make positive changes when you realize your beliefs and actions are at odds.

It can become problematic if it leads you to justify or rationalize behaviors that could be harmful. Or you may get caught up in trying to rationalize the dissonance to the point of stressing yourself out.

The next time you find yourself in a moment of cognitive dissonance, take a moment to ask yourself a few questions:

What are the two cognitions that aren’t fitting together?

What actions would I need to take to eliminate that dissonance?

Do I need to change any specific behaviors? Or do I need to change a mindset or belief?

How important is it for me to resolve the dissonance?

Simply being more aware of how your thoughts and actions fit together can help you better understand what’s important to you, even if you don’t eliminate the dissonance.

Everyone experiences cognitive dissonance in some form in their life. It’s more common to feel discomfort and to feel like you need to resolve the dissonance when cognitions are important to you or they conflict heavily with each other.

Me: *sees gif*

Me: .....

Me: *calculates the cognitive dissonance*

AOC reached out to people who voted for Trump but then also Democrat for local issues and the answers are what you expect but also show the dissonance in society.

Most of the answers show that people were not reading or doing research for themselves.

She then asked what news sources people follow and that was honestly worse.

If no one, no teacher or adult has ever explained it to you, instead of only watching one news source or only news sources that lean your way, or worse: no news at all, you are supposed to watch and read both. This means if you’re left leaning, that you should be watching or at least getting a headline email from places like Fox News to counter balance other leftist news sources. Not to balance your thoughts, but because it’s important to know what info the other side is and is not getting and How that info is being reported.

Intentionally in tension – reflection and sermon for May 13: Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day or happy “remembrance of the mother figure in your life” Sunday. Today is a day set aside to remember those feminine figures in our lives who have nurtured us in our personal and spiritual growth. Even with the baggage that may be associated with the day it was a wonderful day to come together as we close out the Easter season (Pentecost is next Sunday). It was a day to…