Day 23 of 365

January 23

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Psychology

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Cognitive dissonance occurs when holding contradictory beliefs creates psychological discomfort, motivating people to reduce the inconsistency. This explains why people rationalize bad decisions, dig deeper into false beliefs when confronted with evidence, and change their attitudes to match their actions. Leon Festinger's famous study showed cult members strengthened their beliefs even after their apocalypse prediction failed.

💡 Did you know?

Paying people less to lie about a boring task actually makes them believe the task was more enjoyable than paying them more!

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