It refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. This produces a feeling of mental discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance.
In other words, cognitive dissonance describes the discomfort experienced when two cognitions are incompatible with each other. A cognition is a piece of knowledge, such as a thought, attitude, personal value etc.
How do you know?
>Feeling embarrassed or ashamed about something you’ve done and trying to hide your actions from other people
>Feeling uncomfortable before doing something or making a decision
>Doing things because of social pressure or a fear of missing out (FOMO), even if it wasn’t something you wanted to do.
These are only a few examples and not a conclusive list.
Finally, cognitive dissonance plays a role in many value judgments, decisions, and evaluations. Becoming aware of how conflicting beliefs impact the decision-making process is a great way to improve your ability to make faster and more accurate choices. Resolving this does not necessaily means bringing in sweeping changes. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of changing your perspective on something or developing new patterns of thinking.