Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. This produces a feeling of discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance.
Festinger’s (1957) cognitive dissonance theory suggests that we have an inner drive to hold all our attitudes and beliefs in harmony and avoid disharmony (or dissonance).
Today fefe posted / shared a read-worthy article about cognitive dissonance “Cognitive Dissonance: AIPAC attendees reaction to racist comments“. This is fascinating how ignorant people become and justify their beliefs just to avoid a conflict.