Cognitive dissonance is a term coined by social psychologist Leon Festinger. He and 2 associates infiltrated a group of people who believed the world would end on December 21, 1954. Their leader (named Marian Keech by the researchers) had convinced many of them to give up jobs, property and savings, in the hopes that a flying saucer would rescue the faithful on December 20. Others resigned themselves to wait in fear. Festinger predicted that, when the prophecy failed, those who had given away their possessions would believe in Mrs Keech's mystical powers even more, whereas those who had simply waited would quietly lose their faith. When midnight came and no spaceship appeared, the group became nervous and fearful. Then Mrs Keech revised her prophecy at 4:45 am, saying that the world had been spared because of the courageous faith of her followers. Instantly, the mood of the group shifted from despair to exhilaration. The next morning, they began calling the press to report the miracle and went out into the streets to convert passersby. Cognitive dissonance is the tension that exists when the mind has to hold two separate ideas or beliefs that are incompatible with each other. The tension is so uncomfortable, that the mind will go to great lengths to achieve consistency, often at the risk of ignoring evidence. The theory has spawned more than 3000 experiments, which challenge many ideas of psychology, such as the behaviorist's view that people are driven by rewards, or the economist's view that human beings make rational decisions. Cognitive dissonance predicts that people will be happier with something if it involves more pain than something which comes more easily. For a behaviorist, this is an absurd prediction. But experiments have shown that this is often the case. The belief that "I am a sensible, competent person" is not compatible with the belief that "I've just chosen to do something painful, worthless or boring." So we tend to minimise the downsides of the activity, and see the positives. --- Source: [[Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)]]