Not long ago a husband, "Todd", described the violent nature of his wife, "Lynn." For twenty minutes, Todd painfully illustrated instances of regular, severe emotional abuse coupled with occasional ...

A police officer once told me that most crimes are solved because the criminal mind, as he put it, was “stuck on stupid.” At Stanford back in the late ’50s, Leon Festinger developed theories and tests ...

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 ...

In 1934, an 8.0-magnitude earthquake hit eastern India, killing thousands and devastating several cities. Curiously, in areas that were spared the worst destruction, stories soon spread that an even ...

A man once asked for some of my chewing gum. When I refused him, he explained that he didn’t want it anyway ... Source: Geralt/Pixabay I’ll be the first to admit that the term ‘cognitive dissonance’ ...

Kim M Caudwell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond ...

The mass murder at Mother Emmanuel Church in Charleston, S.C. has raised numerous questions that Americans have either failed to recognize, or ignored, or repressed. What does the Confederate flag ...

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Cognitive dissonance is the state of mind that holds opposing, and even irreconcilable ideas, at the same time. It's a state of mind that most people find sufficiently uncomfortable to motivate them ...