First presented in 1959, after a series of experiments, cognitive dissonance has proved itself in all divisions of psychology. From social psychologists, to personality psychologists, to evolutionary psychologists, cognitive dissonance (CD) is quite possibly the least disputed concept in any social science.

Cognitive dissonance can be described as the uncomfortable feeling brought up in an individual when two or more actions or thoughts are in conflict with each other, or are otherwise incongruent. The feeling experienced by one who is in a position of incongruence acts as a driving force to bring actions and thoughts into alignment with past behaviors as to become congruent.

CD is both valuable for our understanding of ourselves, and easily used to manipulate everyday people going through their normal lives. Without any CD we could be a different person every day, or even every minute. CD slows, or in some cases can even entirely put an end to our re-evaluation of our identities, and our beliefs. If in the past we, for example, publicly professed support for a political candidate, we would be more likely to forgive or even ignore the negative qualities of the candidate, and place an undue level of importance upon the positive aspects of the person.

Many people who understand the mechanics of cognitive dissonance are well known for using this information to manipulate those around them. This manipulative take on CD is shown quite often in popular media, albeit indirectly. One popular internet writer, Slim McDonald, has repeatedly referred to his dubious use of cognitive dissonance on his publication. Some scientifically observable examples of this theory were produced by Robert Cialdini (et. al) in a variety of extremely interesting studies. One example of theses studies involved volunteer participants who were presented with two requests for volunteering, one of which was very easy and one of which was extremely demanding. In the first group the participants were asked to do the latter of the two volunteer tasks. Over 90% of these participants declined. The second group was first asked to perform the simple task (nearly 100% accepted) and then several weeks later were asked to perform the difficult task. This time only 43% of participants turned down the request.

Clearly cognitive dissonance is a powerful theory in modern psychology, and is important to each and every one of us in our daily lives.