Do you ever feel a nagging sense of discomfort when your actions don't match your beliefs? For example, you might tell a small white lie even though you value honesty. That uneasy feeling is known as ...

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 2020s will be a decade of cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is the conflict between what one thinks reality is and what it actually is. Here is Webster's definition: psychological ...

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 ...

Jocelyn Solis-Moreira is a New York-based science journalist whose work has appeared in Health, Live Science, and Discover Magazine, among other publications. She holds a master's degree in psychology ...

Do you ever get that nagging feeling of discomfort when your beliefs and actions don't quite line up? Like when you swear you ...

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 ...

Elicitation is a technique to obtain sensitive information without asking direct questions. Direct questions trigger defensive responses to protect information people would prefer to remain unsaid.

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’ ...

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily. On the night before Christmas in 1954, a Chicago housewife named Dorothy Martin ...