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Cognitive Dissonance in Real Life: Examples and How We React

It’s something you experience on a regular basis, but what is it? Dive into everyday examples of the psychological phenomenon and learn how it affects you.

Cognitive dissonance isn’t something we talk about a lot, but we experience examples of it happening all the time. Cognitive dissonance, in psychological terms, describes the discomfort felt when your beliefs are inconsistent with one another or with your actions.

Cognitive dissonance can be something you don’t even notice because your brain sorts it out quickly, such as when someone bumps into you on your way to work and you spill your coffee. You may initially feel pretty upset, but then you rationalize.

A lot of commonly cited examples of cognitive dissonance are examples of when we justify or rationalize mistakes. But sometimes cognitive dissonance can help us establish positive behaviors or changes that our personality or previous habits would otherwise inhibit us from making.

For instance, if you’re someone who really doesn’t like running or hitting the gym, you may talk yourself into a bike ride or going for a jog anyway by convincing yourself that the activity is good for your health or mood — which research supports, it definitely is, whether you like the activity or not.

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