What is Cognitive Dissonance?
Published: Thu, 03/29/18
I had a response to yesterday’s message expressing interest in what I had to say about Cognitive Dissonance. Lets get the easy bit out of the way first, what is cognitive dissonance, or CD? It is a psychological theory formulated in the 1950s by Leon Festinger. Definition: “CD is the discomfort felt by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas or values.”
That is simple enough, saying that two contradictory things are true at the same time would imply a lack of integrity. A decent person likes to think that they have integrity and that truth matters. On a very simple level it is a matter of sanity.
A simple example of CD. Someone tells you that a another person walks their dog at 7am every morning in the park. But when you meet them they are actually walking a pig on a lead. It is clear that something does not make sense and this will bring on the experience of CD in most people. It maybe that your informant has very poor eyesight and cannot actually distinguish between a dog and a pig and made a genuine mistake. However, if the person walking the animal insists that the creature is a dog rather than a pig then probably they are mad.
What about the original informant? If questioned they might say.
“I know my eyesight is not good and I have not seen the creature up close but it did look like a funny looking dog. But no one walks pigs on a lead so I told you what I believed to be true.”
They may even thank you for correcting the misconception and thus relieving their state of CD as to whether that were actually seeing a pig or a dog.
Or, both the informant and the walker might continue to insist that the pig is a dog and question your sanity for suggesting otherwise. At this point you may suspect that there is a small conspiracy and both these people are playing mind games with you.
Or you could just agree that the pig is indeed a very fine dog and enjoy a quiet life.
A silly example, but not too far off the situation we live in every day. Bear in mind that growing up and learning about the world is going to trigger the CD response frequently and we just have to get used to it. As a child growing up your experience of the world will be your family and its norms. Making friends and getting to know other families will expose you to different norms and attitudes. So will school, work environments, especially ones with distinctive cultures such as the armed services, foreign travel and exploring other religions will all challenge and expand your view and experience of the world. Each challenge which forces you to adapt your world view will very likely bring about the experience of CD. That is normal and healthy and is really just another growing pain. In fact I would go as far as suggesting that if you do not welcome the experience of CD on a regular basis as a sign of learning and growing then
you have become stuck in various ways.
Both my parents grew up in a time of social upheaval before, during and after WW2. There wasn’t much choice but to experience a great many unfamiliar and sometimes not very pleasant things. But you just got on with it and the CD was just part of the experience. (I suppose it had not been invented then so maybe it didn’t even happen?) Anyway, I can’t remember ever being discouraged from asking questions and seeking out new people to get to know and having new experiences. Both my parents were very much involved in the church and politics but nothing was ever off limits as far as discussion was concerned. Maybe I was lucky.
I hope I have maintained this attitude throughout my life. I will talk about religion another time but as far as martial arts is concerned I have always been prepared to take the risk of learning something new. When I started martial arts in the early 1970s there tended to be an attitude in each style that they had all the answers and were the best and you must not train with anyone else. I never took that very seriously at the time and ever since I have tried to learn from anyone who has something useful to offer. When I do go to a seminar or another class, I usually find that little surprises me and it is just an opportunity to train. But every now and then I find a gap in my knowledge and I pick up something new and useful, I have the experience of CD but that often tells me that I have just discovered something useful. That is the positive side of CD, an indication of growth and learning.
The negative side goes back to my example of the pig walker. How do we respond when confronted with the pressure to conform to a belief (statement of agreed fact) which is not supported by anything that you can accept as evidence? You are in potential conflict and you need to know how to manage it. More on that tomorrow when I will talk about religion.
regards
Graham
PS I like to learn from many different sources, this is why I have arranged the HEMA Diversity Camp in June. It will be fun and you will get the chance to learn from a variety of people who have put the time and effort in to master their arts and teaching abilities. Please check out http://hdc.stavcamp.org/