Cognitive Dissonance might make you hate coffee!

Coffee is the ‘yuckiest’ drink!

Ever felt confused or uncomfortable when you hold two conflicting views, like, let’s say, “I love coffee!” and “Coffee will eventually kill you!” (this is absolutely a hypothetical statement made for the purpose of this post. There is no scientific evidence that concretely proves or disproves the effects of coffee on health. I personally love coffee and dread at the thought of not drinking it ever. So, please don’t stop drinking coffee after reading this!)

But the interesting thing about this friend is that when we meet up in a cafe and I order my grande Americano, he cringes his brows and says, “how do you drink that? It’s so fucking bitter!”

I am assuming that’s what he told himself over and over again to convince himself to stop drinking. And now believes it so much that, and I am guessing here, has forgotten how much he enjoyed the taste himself. His mind has completely re-written the circuits where he now strongly believes that coffee is perhaps the most ‘yuckiest’ drink in the world.

And so, this group went on to believe even more strongly that the prophecy was true and that apocalypse was predicted and that their faith was what stopped it from happening.

This may sound surprising to you, but it’s actually so common that there is a good odd that you have faced cognitive dissonance yourself. What about that expensive dress/suit you wanted to buy? Did you end up believing that it would have looked good, or fit you, or wasn’t worth the price tag?

“Aw, come one! 500 bucks! It’s not worth it!”

Well, it seemed worth it first, but then something in you changed your mind. This is cognitive dissonance at play.

Well, in a way, cognitive dissonance does, at least in my view and experience, no more harm than just merely changing your perception and beliefs. It doesn’t make a difference to my friend or me or anyone else for that matter, if he thinks coffee is the ‘yuckiest’ drink. He’s free to his opinion.

But the problem is that opinions cause judgments that in-turn govern decision and action. Not drinking coffee would be fine, but what if he stopped me or his wife or went on a campaign to have coffee banned (I would have personally shot him if he had been successful at that!).

What about religious opinions that get strengthened because of cognitive dissonance? It is by no means harmless, when a man shoots a bunch of commuters in a bus or children in a school because ‘god’ told him so. Or when a group of religious fanatics terrorize others, go on killing sprees and try to cleanse the world of bad blood. All these are extreme cases of cognitive dissonance at work.

Originally published on January 23rd, 2013

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Futred/In Workshops LLP was a training company I used to run a few years back. It no longer is operational and neither is the site.

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