Dissonance isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Recognizing when your beliefs and behaviors are in conflict — or recognizing when two beliefs seem to oppose each other — can help you parse out and better understand your values and what you stand for. And ultimately, recognizing that inner conflict can help you understand yourself better and the values and beliefs that really matter to you, says Paraskevi Noulas, PsyD, a clinical associate professor at NYU Langone Health in New York City.
“Working to find the cognitive dissonance in your life can be a positive and amazing life-altering experience,” Dr. Curry says. “It can allow you to grow in control of yourself and help you build trust in yourself and your decision-making.”
Doing some soul searching to determine the areas of your life where contradiction exists can shed light on areas you may need to work on. Maybe you always expect your friends to be prompt when you have dinner plans, but you’re usually 10 minutes late yourself. Adjusting your behavior or your expectations of your friends might help lessen conflict down the line. You can use that self-awareness to guide your future actions and decisions.
On a big-picture level, we have cognitive dissonance to thank for huge advancements within society. Dr. Noulas says that successes in women’s rights, environmental rights, and gay rights are examples of positive change that have resulted from cognitive dissonance. Those changes were due to individuals recognizing contradictions between how people viewed women, the environment, and nontraditional relationships and how we acted as a society (or allowed others to act).
People recognized the cognitive dissonance and made necessary changes to better align society’s values with our actions.
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