COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
The theory of Cognitive Dissonance proposes that people are averse to inconsistencies within their own minds. It offers one explanation for why people sometimes make an effort to adjust their thinking when their own thoughts, words, or behaviors seem to clash with each other.
Cognition: Defined as 'the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, perception, judgement, experience, and reasoning.
Within the Republican Party
Dissonance: A lack of agreement. The dissonance between the truth and what people want to believe. especially : inconsistency between the beliefs one holds or between one's actions and one's beliefs compare cognitive dissonance.
Primary types of Cognitive Dissonance: post-decisional dissonance, dissonance from wanting something we can't have, dissonance due to inconsistency between attitude and behavior, dissonance due to inadequate justification, and dissonance due to inconsistency between commitment and information.
An Example of Cognitive Dissonance: “Smoking is a dumb thing to do because it could kill me” and “I smoke two packs a day.” A state of tension now occurs when a person holds two cognitions that are psychologically inconsistent, or when people’s attitudes contradict their behavior. So smokers must either quit smoking or convince themselves smoking isn’t really
that harmful.
Examples in American Politics
