To say everything in life revolved around cognitive dissonance would be a stretch, but in my opinion not too big of a one. We are constantly inundated today with information that either aligns with our core beliefs (think of the way YouTube and Facebook impacted the 2016 election) which helps to even more firmly entrench what we believe in, or we are exposed to information and media runs counter to what we think. This means we are often have little battles insides our heads about what we believe and if that still makes sense.
Cognitive dissonance, the tendency for individuals to seek consistency among their cognitions (i.e., beliefs, opinions). Whenever something doesn’t align between what you believe and how you acted, you experience this discomfort and tension that you look to alleviate. This is typically done by: 1) downplaying the new beliefs that you don’t agree with 2) doubling down on your own beliefs so that you couldn’t possible agree with those new beliefs and 3) changing your initial beliefs to align with the new beliefs.
No matter where you look you will see this. If you get fired from your job, your going to want to reduce that disconnect between what actually happened (getting fired) and why you think that could have happened. You could look at as a blessing and say “I didn’t really like that job anyways”. You could also relieve this disconnect by saying that you didn’t like that company or your boss. What’s most challenging though, and where I think most people struggle, is to take an objective look at the reasons why you got fired. This is inherently hard to do as it’s pretty much impossible to be objective when thinking about oneself. Hearing from others who you worked with might be an even better way to look at solving this problem. After this, aim to understand your thoughts and your previous actions, then use them to develop a new set of beliefs about what would make you a great employee.
Once you start looking for cognitive dissonance in your live (and in others), you’ll begin to see it everywhere!