A culture of cognitive dissonance

“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes” Charles Spurgeon.
“By a lie, a man… annihilates his dignity as a man”. Immanuel Kant.

Life thrives or dies on the basis of the quality of relationship each of us engages in. Success or stagnation in life is the product of our human relationships. Cognitive dissonance exists in the context of human relationship. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Psychology, this term refers to “the effects of inconsistent cognition- interpreted in terms of knowledge or belief” (Editor, Andrew Colman, 1995, p. 144).

Another definition says that Cognitive dissonance represents, “The state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioural decisions and attitude change.” Note that the term, “inconsistent” is consistent in the two definitions. In simple terms Cognitive dissonance is an intelligent way of lying.

The theory of Cognitive dissonance is credited to Leon Festinger (1957), who noted that human beings tend to maintain internal consistency in their mind. Those who experience internal inconsistency tend to become psychologically distressed. In the process of trying to reduce the stress of inconsistency, human beings may end up justifying their errors.

Consider a few examples. Erstwhile lovers overnight degenerate into daredevils and are ready to destroy each other due to the emergence of “irreconcilable differences”. As ironic as it is, these once a time lovebirds pretended as if they never saw the red flags in the relationship until, they were satisfactorily certain that things had fallen apart. The fact is that in most cases, people pretend to employ the wisdom of the ostrich instead of facing reality. How come, a serious oath of matrimony, which was publically taken and announced as “ till death do us part” is flagrantly broken at the test of the least pressure? Did the partners mean what they said or say what they meant?

A second scenario where Cognitive dissonance is acquiring the status of a culture is in the workplace and or business. Faced with the harsh realities of this post COVID-19 era, more employers of labour and employees are perfecting their skills in practicing Cognitive dissonance. In the same vein, more businesspersons are raising the status of Cognitive dissonance to that of a culture. These days, the idea of walking your talk is fast vanishing. It seems that the more deceptive people are, the more successful they seem to be.

The third example is most injurious. We all are victims of grossly failed political promises and precincts. Politicians seem to have mastered this art of making inconsistent promises during every electioneering campaign year. We the helpless and hapless electorates all over the world seem to remain victims.

The question is, what factors nurture or promote the culture of Cognitive dissonance? Why do people engage in inconsistent behaviours consistently?

The human brain is complex and is capable of accommodating almost a limitless quantum of information. It contains over 86 billion interconnected neurons (Ben Carson, 2015; You Have a Brain). This capacity can be applied positively or negatively. Those who apply their brainpower negatively may misuse it in fabricating falsehood, manipulating people and situations and causing mayhem to others.

Personality type is one of the factors that affects the incidence and development of Cognitive dissonance. For instance, the Holy Writ makes this invaluable contribution to the issue at hand: “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise.” (Proverbs 10:19). The relevance of this axiom is directly related to the personality type that is loquacious. Most often, it is the outgoing Sanguine and Choleric. The former will engage in talkativeness for the purpose of achieving happiness while the latter would do same to achieve control. Consequently, in the multitudes of words, lies, falsehood and inconsistencies would abound. Several promises would be made but not fulfilled.

Another factor that affects Cognitive dissonance is history. History here refers to past experiences, which can come from family upbringing, school and other areas of human endeavour where the individual has passed through in the process of growing up. If inconsistent words and behaviours were promoted during those formative years, the individual will likely imbibe the habit of Cognitive dissonance.

Closely related to this are the societal values that thrive from one community to the other. For instance, in the past, parents used to query the source of their children’s wealth. This virtue is almost lost in our contemporary time. Our focus is on material gain and no longer on due process.

At other times, Cognitive dissonance can be as a result of psychological disorder. The inconsistency of thoughts, words and actions is a product of psychological disorder. Obviously, speech is one of the indices of mental health. For example, there is the extreme case of neologism; a symptom of schizophrenia which manifests in the form coinage of new words which are meaningless. Other mild manifestations of speech disorders are rooted in thought impairment.

We all are familiar with the fact that insane people have their coded language. The challenge here is that, most of us are unable to make accurate diagnosis of inconsistent speech and actions that is as a result psychological disorder.

In concluding this discourse, it is important to note that Cognitive dissonance may not leave our shores in a hurry.

We may have to adjust to the scourge and stench of this maladaptive behaviour. Sometimes and in some climes, Cognitive dissonance is elevated to the status of a normal lifestyle. Consequently, we need to challenge the status quo of deception in our society today. We need to rise up against the salacious voice of dissonance. However, individuals who desire remedies can consult a Psychologist or psychiatrist.

•Dr. Amaraegbu Passy, Clinical Psychologist can be reached at drpassy@yahoo.com