Cognitive dissonance – a term attributed to psychologist Leon Festinger – arises when there is an inconsistency between someone’s actions and what she thinks she must do. An often-quoted example is smoking: if the person smokes and believes that smoking is unhealthy, there exists a dissonance.
This inconsistency is a serious issue and can affect a person mentally and physically. And that calls for a solution. But how do people manage it?
Modify the thought
“Well, I do smoke; but smoking relaxes me, so it is not that bad”. Such a change of view could restore consistency.
Modify the behaviour
Another way of dealing with cognitive dissonance is to repair the inconsistency by quitting the habit.
Rationalise
The person can argue about, say, other healthy behaviour that she follows to justify a bit of smoking. “I do exercises, annual medical check-ups, not all smokers get cancer”, etc.
Ignore
The last attitude is to trivialise it and simply declare: “I don’t care!”.
Cognitive dissonance: Wiki
Cognitive Dissonance Theory: A Crash Course: Youtube
