When there is an inconsistency between our behavior and attitude, we psychologically experience a process called cognitive dissonance. The example of everyone’s love is to lose weight. Suppose you are in a weight loss period and should have eaten less calorie food. But one day you really can’t beat your own desires and eat a donut. This time you will regret very much in your heart. This feeling of regret is cognitive dissonance: your attitude conflicts with your behavior.

If the premise that “humans will instinctively seek the coordination of behaviors/attitudes” is established, they will seek to alleviate the imbalance when they encounter “cognitive disorders.” When the imbalance between people’s attitudes and their behavior cannot be alleviated by external forces, they must seek internal strength, that is, change their original cognition/attitude to restore cognitive balance.

What is the practical significance of this theory?

First, in the field of education, the creation and elimination of cognitive disorders can mobilize the enthusiasm of students. If parents want to let their children develop some sort of (time-consuming and labor-intensive) habit, they may want to use a little bit of coercion at the beginning, so that they must continue to perform this unwilling thing. After a period, their attitude towards this matter will gradually change in a positive direction. This method is “If I spend time and energy to do something, then it must be meaningful.” We can also think backwards by the way. If we value something very much, this thing seems to be of great significance to ourselves. Is it possible that it is because of the “defense”, which is not so important in itself? Such thinking can break your own behavioral style and help you jump out of inertia thinking.

Cognitive dissonance theory is also useful in the field of psychotherapy, such as the treatment of snake phobia ophidiophobia. The psychiatrist will involve the patient in a series of activities that have nothing to do with the treatment of phobia but let them think that these activities are therapeutic. The results show that the short-term effect is very significant, which is a typical reverse effect of the defense effect: behavior affects attitude, and thus affects behavior.