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Cognitive dissonance

Are you aware of:
  1. cognitive dissonance, and
  2. how you respond to cognitive dissonance?

Cognitive dissonance happens when you encounter a fact that disagrees with your world view. "Cognitive" refers to thinking, and "dissonance" means disharmony or disagreement. 

Cognitive dissonance can cause physical discomfort, like stress. The more strongly a fact counters your world view, the more physical discomfort - tension - you might feel. 

When a fact causes you to have: 
  • cognitive dissonance, and 
  • tension related stress, 
you might have a great desire: 
  • to ignore the fact, or
  • to find a way to dismiss the fact,
so that you can relax. Doing so however is willful ignorance. 

Alternatively, you can examine your world view. Is your world view realistic?

Related definitions

From Webster's 1828 dictionary:
COGNITIVE, adjective. Knowing, or apprehending by the understanding; as cognitive power.
DISSONANCE, noun [Latin , to be discordant; to sound.]

1. Discord; a mixture or union of harsh, unharmonious sounds, which are grating or unpleasing to the ear; as the dissonance of notes, sounds or numbers.

2. Disagreement.

'They thought they were free'

Further reading

R.J. Maybury, "Uncle Eric Talks About Personal, Career, and Financial Security (An Uncle Eric Book)", Bluestocking Press: 2004, page 66.
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M. Mayer, "They thought they were free: the Germans 1933-1945", University of Chicago Press: 1966.
Amazon link
E.M. Remarque, "All quiet on the western front", Little, Brown and Company: 1975.
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