Being made to do something in public that you don’t agree with can cause cognitive dissonance. For example, you might be told to give a public apology or walk back something you previously said.

That was all I needed; my cognitive dissonance was gone. Between my university and the hospital, I was convinced that the danger of smoking had been exaggerated.

Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort you feel when your beliefs and actions do not align. Learn more about the signs and causes as well as how to cope.

When your team is stuck between competing truths, more pressure won’t move them. Three psychology-informed strategies can help guide a team forward.

The hardest part about waking up isn’t the trauma triggered by some newly inescapable cognitive dissonance. It’s the humility it takes to admit that all the shaming we did to other people was not only ...

Cognitive dissonance pops up when your thinking, attitude, behavior, or previous internalized messages conflict with your behavior or new information that you have to reconcile with, Tzall says.

In human psychology, attitude changes linked to cognitive dissonance are often modest. GPT-4o, by contrast, displayed dramatic shifts, potentially due to the way it processes and replicates ...

Sometimes the cognitive dissonance may come up long after a decision has been made. "This can lead you to rationalize why you made a choice," Dr. Leno said.

In 1957, Leon Festinger published his findings on cognitive dissonance, and subsequently his theory became an important staple in social psychology. However, the concept of cognitive dissonance has ...