Cognitive Dissonance…?
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   Has anyone ever said to you, “Do as I say, not as I do”? Probably so. And if you were to stop and think about it, who usually says something like that? Someone with authority. Someone on whose terms the game is being played. Someone who won’t suffer unduly for being a hypocrite. Yet when their actions contradict what they say, you aren’t supposed to question it because that’s just the way things are. This is an example of cognitive dissonance that probably hits home for more than just a few of us...

   A dictionary definition of cognitive dissonance might read something like, "a condition of conflict or anxiety resulting from an inconsistency between stated beliefs and real-world actions." When there is a discrepancy between what someone says, or the beliefs and values that they uphold, and what is actually done or happens, cognitive dissonance results.

   Cognitive dissonance is not likely to result from following the dictums of the status quo, particularly with regard to how we think about things. In this sense, the status quo amounts to something like, "Think as I say to think about what happens, and not otherwise"; or, "Think as you were taught to think, about yourself, about others, about your values and beliefs, about others’ values and beliefs (that is, if you were actually taught them at all), for that is the natural order of things of which you are a part." To question those existing constructs, is, well, somewhat heretical, to say the least, and I would say that the fact that it is heretical only serves to further strengthen and protect the status quo itself, a kind of built-in survival mechanism, if you will.

   But beyond the question of what it “means” to question the status quo, cognitive dissonance, when it occurs, reveals something that is worth investigating. What does it reveal, exactly? I am only just beginning to get a handle on that. The boundaries of our beliefs? The point at which those beliefs break down? And what lies beyond those boundaries? Is that worth knowing?

   Talcott Parsons has said, "Science is a selective system of cognitive orientations to reality." Changing science to belief, so that it now reads, "Belief is a selective system of cognitive orientations to reality", I somehow find extremely satisfying, for it helps shed light on the subject at hand. When those "cognitive orientations" break down, cognitive dissonance results, and the implications of that need to be investigated I feel.

   Cognitive dissonance finds expression in so many aspects of our lives, and yet it remains largely unexplored I believe. This is a place where I want to try and investigate examples of cognitive dissonance in action, and thereby raise awareness of its workings in our lives. To what end? Raised awareness, unlearning the learned, resulting freedom of thought…

~ Suvian Quilmann