Cognitive Dissonance: The Hardest Person to Convince
She read the warning, binned the newspaper and carried on anyway. That is cognitive dissonance, and RC passages love it.
Cognitive dissonance
Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort of holding beliefs or values that conflict with each other or with our actions, which people then try to reduce.
Spot it in RC passages: In reading passages, an author explaining why people defend actions that contradict their beliefs, or change their beliefs to fit their behaviour, is drawing on this idea.
What do you keep doing even though you know better?
Read this comic as text
- Cover: a woman in a red velvet armchair holds a cigarette beside a newspaper showing lungs, with the title I know it's harmful, I smoke anyway. I know it's harmful. I smoke anyway. A story about cognitive dissonance.
- A woman in an armchair reads a newspaper with the headline Smoking Harms Your Health. Newspaper headline: Smoking harms your health.
- The woman angrily drops the newspaper into a waste bin while reaching for a cigarette case. Woman (thinking): !#@*%^!@
- Close-up of the woman lighting a cigarette with a lighter. She lights a cigarette anyway.
- A man in a suit seated opposite the smoking woman asks why she smokes after calling it terrible. Man: You just said smoking is terrible for your health. Then why do you smoke?
- The woman answers calmly with a cigarette in hand while the man listens. Woman: Because I don't believe in everything I say.
- Lesson card: Cognitive dissonance, the discomfort of conflicting beliefs and actions, and three ways to reduce it. This is called cognitive dissonance. The psychological discomfort caused by a conflict between our beliefs, values, and actions. We reduce it by changing our behaviour, reconsidering our beliefs, or inventing justifications. Spot it in RC passages: An author explaining why people defend actions that contradict their beliefs, or bend their beliefs to fit their behaviour, is drawing on this idea. Sometimes, the hardest person to convince is yourself.
What is the cognitive dissonance?
Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort of holding beliefs or values that conflict with each other or with our actions, which people then try to reduce.
How does the cognitive dissonance show up in RC passages?
In reading passages, an author explaining why people defend actions that contradict their beliefs, or change their beliefs to fit their behaviour, is drawing on this idea.
What should I take away from this comic?
She read the warning, binned the newspaper and carried on anyway. That is cognitive dissonance, and RC passages love it. Ask yourself: What do you keep doing even though you know better?