Leon FestingerThinkers

Cognitive dissonance is a description of the state of one cognition following not from another cognition, but from the converse of another cognition.

Cognitive dissonance is a fundamental experience, playing a crucial role in the construction, negotiation and reconstruction of meaning, both for individuals and for a social community.

Cognitive dissonance is a theory of human motivation that asserts that it is psychologically uncomfortable to hold contradictory cognitions. The theory is that dissonance, being unpleasant, motivates a person to change his cognition, attitude, or behavior.

Cognitive dissonance is an emotional state set up when two simultaneously held attitudes or cognitions are inconsistent or when there is a conflict between belief and overt behavior.

Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by simultaneously holding two contradictory cognitions. These cognitions may be attitudes and beliefs or awareness of one's own behavior.

Cognitive dissonance is something like hunger or thirst... a psychological drive which tries to resolve two competing cognitions by making them psychologically consonant with one another.

Cognitive dissonance is a set of contradicting cognitions that motivates the individual to try to resolve a lack of harmony either by changing the less important cognition (i.e. Drinking less)... denying evidence that the cognitions are in conflict (i.e. Refusing that drinking is bad)... or changing the importance of the cognitions (i.e. Putting life over health).

Cognitive dissonance is the feeling of discomfort that arises when a person strives to maintain consistency between differing cognitions by means of adjusting one's beliefs in such a way that the conflict disappears.

Cognitive dissonance is the mental conflict experienced when one is presented with evidence that their beliefs or assumptions are wrong.

Cognitive dissonance is the perception of incompatibility between two cognitions, which can be defined as any element of knowledge, including attitude, emotion, belief, or behavior.