How we respond to moments of cognitive dissonance matters. We can use these episodes to refine our worldview and strengthen ...

Do you ever feel a nagging sense of discomfort when your actions don't match your beliefs? For example, you might tell a small white lie even though you value honesty. That uneasy feeling is known as ...

You've been presented with two viable options for a new career. The first option is what you've always wanted—the role sounds like a perfect fit. But the second option comes with higher pay and better ...

If you don’t locate and stop resistance it can eat away at your change efforts long before you’re aware of the damage it’s ...

Cognitive dissonance refers to the psychological discomfort that arises when an individual holds two or more conflicting cognitions—attitudes, beliefs or behaviours—simultaneously. This tension drives ...

Cognitive dissonance, or having conflicting attitudes, beliefs and behaviors, is affecting how people respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a recent article for The Atlantic, social scientists Elliot ...

Cognitive dissonance arises when individuals hold conflicting beliefs or when behaviour runs counter to personal values, generating psychological discomfort that motivates efforts to restore ...

One of the great mysteries in both religion and politics is why people continue to hold on to fervently cherished beliefs in spite of evidence contrary to those beliefs. I will give some examples in ...

At the height of summer, at the end of a day of kids in the pool and cupcake-eating while grown-ups sipped glasses of chilled wine in celebration of our child’s birthday, I stood in our backyard ...

Thomas Plante (@ThomasPlante) Augustin Cardinal Bea, SJ professor of psychology at Santa Clara University, is a faculty scholar with the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and an adjunct clinical ...

Cognitive dissonance is a term for the state of discomfort felt when two or more modes of thought contradict each other. The clashing cognitions may include ideas, beliefs, or the knowledge that one ...