I feel a bit of dissonance over writing this post. My newly edited book on dissonance, Cognitive Dissonance: Re-examining a Pivotal Theory in Psychology, is an update of the book Jud Mills and I ...

A recent New Yorker article, “Is Cognitive Dissonance Actually a Thing?”, strongly implies that the answer to that question is “No.” The article arrived at this answer by considering a 1956 ...

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Cognitive dissonance is what happens when a person holds two sets of beliefs at odds with each other. The human brain doesn’t like logical inconsistencies, so someone experiencing cognitive dissonance ...

MOST OF US have experienced conflicting beliefs at one time or another. For instance, you know that drinking too much alcohol is bad for your health, but you pour yourself a second glass of wine ...

The holidays can be joyful, but social pressures, clashing cultural and family traditions, overeating and overspending invariably also leave many of us with a “cognitive dissonance hangover” once all ...

One of the intriguing aspects of the public trade debate has long been cognitive dissonance—the ability to hold conflicting viewpoints simultaneously. This has been illustrated recently in two polls, ...

A discussion on how turn-earning at ski areas presents a unique setting, and a complicated psychological landscape, for the human-powered skier. Our skis skidded and chattered as we descended each ...