Cognitive Dissonance
Craving Consistency: Your Mind's Battle With Itself
Wear mismatched socks on purpose and then see if you're irritated all day (you should be).
Cognitive dissonance. It may sound like psychobabble, but it's actually the brain's own plot twist. Lighting up a cigarette while wearing a "Quit Smoking" badge. Your mind is engaged in a duel, simultaneously playing the roles of both the hero and the villain.
Why does it happen? Our brains crave consistency. When we act in ways that clash with our beliefs, the mental sirens go off. It's uncomfortable. It’s weird.
For example, let's say you purchase a new iPhone despite emphasizing the importance of saving money. You have two options: either admit that you're not as frugal as you claim to be or, more likely, justify the expense. You might tell yourself, "It's an investment.”
Our brains seek to resolve cognitive dissonance by either reframing our beliefs about what we're doing or, more commonly, justifying our actions so that they align with our beliefs.
"When experiencing dissonance, individuals not only try to reduce it but also actively avoid situations and information that could further increase the dissonance."
— Leon Festinger
Cognitive dissonance, or the attempt to avoid it, influences much of our behavior, speech, and even thoughts. Understanding this effect and being aware of it in ourselves and others can be a powerful tool.
Here are 3 other concepts you might benefit from:
"More of what matters. None of what doesn't."
That sounds great -- but in my immense experience in challenging people on their calcified "convictions" that cannot survive scrutiny: The response is almost invariably "None of what matters. More of what doesn't." Countless people are flooding the internet daily with their "concerns" about cognitive dissonance, but the second they even perceive a threat to their interests, lo and behold -- out comes the cognitive dissonance.
Like what I call the Critical Thinking Crowd: In the force fields of fallacy people hide behind today, you can claim to be a critical thinker and not do anything that remotely reflects its requirements. In a world where advertising virtue magically equates to embodying it, you can believe whatever you want and get away with it with ease, because you’ve got friends. Anything Goes when going for gold in the Gutter Games of Government. And when you’re constantly reinforced by your fellowship of fury — you can promote principles in one breath and abandoning them the next.
Or as I coined social media -- Safe-Space Central:
"The individual believer must have social support. It is unlikely that one isolated believer could withstand the kind of disconfirming evidence we have specified. If, however, the believer is a member of a group of convinced persons who can support one another, we would expect the belief to be maintained and the believers to attempt to proselyte or to persuade nonmembers that the belief is correct.
These five conditions specify the circumstances under which increased proselyting would be expected to follow disconfirmation."
-- When Prophecy Fails
From the Earth to the Moon to “WUT”: https://onevoicebecametwo.life/2024/04/24/from-the-earth-to-the-moon-to-wut/
Odd socks