Cognitive Dissonance and Addiction Behaviors Elevate Addiction Services

 

cognitive dissonance and addiction

But that is difficult, so most smokers convince themselves that the links between smoking and lung cancer are not quite as strong as doctors claim (modify belief, or avoid the information). In the context of dieting, a person who intends to lose weight has dissonance because of his conflicting strong desires for fattening foods and to lose weight. After an overindulging evening in a special event, he may experience an intense feeling of discomfort (regret and guilt) for his behavior. He may reduce the discomfort by either downplaying the importance of weight loss, or engage in a rigorous exercise the day after. In both examples, the reactions show that they are justifying their irrational behavior. The other half, however, given insufficient justification (only $1) for their behavior, experienced dissonance between the knowledge that the task was boring and the reality that they were misleading a fellow participant into believing it was interesting.

Challenge your beliefs

This technology employs a distributed machine learning approach, which assumes that users’ data is not stored on a centralized server but is instead kept confidential on the users’ edge devices, such as smartphones. By training the AI model on the user’s mobile device and transferring only information about the parameters obtained from the training back to a global model, Federated Learning can significantly improve user privacy compared to traditional machine learning approaches. While data collection is a necessary aspect of AI-driven systems, it is equally important to implement cognitive dissonance and addiction technical measures to prevent unauthorized disclosure of personal information, thereby preserving the privacy of users. Drug addiction manifests clinically as compulsive drug seeking, drug use, and cravings that can persist and recur even after extended periods of abstinence. From a psychological and neurological perspective, addiction is a disorder of altered cognition. The brain regions and processes that underlie addiction overlap extensively with those that are involved in essential cognitive functions, including learning, memory, attention, reasoning, and impulse control.

LEARNING IN THE MIND AND BRAIN

Without recognizing the powerful shifts in thinking while craving, the smoker may conclude that the relapse reflects a lack of willpower or self-confidence. In another study, abusers of 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy) continued to score relatively poorly in tests of immediate and delayed recall of spoken words even after 2.5 years of abstinence (Thomasius et al., 2006). Sometimes, the ways that people resolve cognitive dissonance contribute to unhealthy behaviors or poor decisions. You may also experience cognitive dissonance when you have situations where friends, family members or coworkers act a certain way that don’t align with your beliefs. You may be pressured into allowing those actions to continue or participate in those actions yourself — and that can leave you with some significant discomfort, so you end up questioning exactly how you should feel about the situation.

Dealing With Dissonance in Therapy: 4 Tips

A man who learns that his eating habits raise his risk of illness feels the tension between his preferred behavior and the idea that he could be in danger. He might ease this feeling by telling himself that the health warning is exaggerated or, more productively, by deciding to take action to change his behavior. If a woman reads that her favorite politician has done something immoral, she could conclude that the charges have been invented by his enemies—or, instead, rethink her support. https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/does-alcohol-weaken-our-immune-system/ While cognitive dissonance is often described as something widely and regularly experienced, efforts to capture it in studies don’t always work, so it could be less common than has been assumed. People do not necessarily experience discomfort in response to every apparent contradiction in their thoughts and beliefs. When someone tells a lie and feels uncomfortable about it because he fundamentally sees himself as an honest person, he may be experiencing cognitive dissonance.

  • The stronger the discrepancy between thoughts, the greater the motivation to reduce it (Festinger, 1957).
  • Pan-entertainment mobile live broadcast users experience information overload, service overload, and user addiction, leading to cognitive dissonance and resulting in discontinuous usage intention.
  • These findings expand upon previous research on discontinuous usage intentions among social media users and offer insights into the underlying psychological mechanisms among users of pan-entertainment mobile live broadcast platforms.
  • Therapeutic approaches such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) can be highly effective in helping individuals identify and challenge conflicting thoughts, ultimately promoting positive behavioral changes.
  • Among the examples he used to illustrate the theory were doomsday cult members and their explanations for why the world had not ended as they had anticipated.
  • They are willing to increase their own delusional thinking to protect their current addiction.

cognitive dissonance and addiction

Such cognitions can be about behaviors, perceptions, attitudes, emotions, and beliefs. If the cognitions are relevant, they can be in agreement (consistent) or disagreement (inconsistent) with one another (Festinger, 1957). When faced with conflict, you may experience cognitive dissonance if you make a decision to lessen potential conflict between you and other people, but it’s not necessarily a decision you fully believe in.

DRUGS OF ABUSE AND MENTAL ILLNESS

Download 3 Free Positive CBT Tools Pack (PDF)

  • One-on-one therapy is particularly effective in addressing cognitive dissonance and helping individuals shift their beliefs and behaviors.
  • While data collection is a necessary aspect of AI-driven systems, it is equally important to implement technical measures to prevent unauthorized disclosure of personal information, thereby preserving the privacy of users.
  • If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others through CBT, this collection contains 17 validated positive CBT tools for practitioners.
  • Here’s how we can face our triggers with less reactivity so that we can get on with our lives.
  • A total of 15 questionnaires were excluded, and finally, 391 valid questionnaires were collected, with the effective rate of 92%.

cognitive dissonance and addiction