As a former mental health therapist, minister, and ombudsman, I have seen almost every form of behavior in a person that does not align with that person’s claimed values or beliefs. The official term for this is cognitive dissonance.
A definition of cognitive dissonance is ” the discomfort a person feels when their behavior does not align with their values or beliefs.” An example of this paradox is valuing being healthy yet continuing to smoke. Or being a diabetic with a knowledge of the disease yet continuing to eat a high sugar and fat diet. We all are guilty of engaging of some of these contradicting behaviors that are against our value systems but we manage to rationalize them.
Republican voters in our country are now in one of the biggest examples of cognitive dissonance I have ever witnessed. In voting for a new president, half of the United States is willing to put their values and beliefs aside to vote for a mentally unstable man who denounces others, denigrates minorities, mocks those with disabilities, hates immigrants, and has been convicted of sexual abuse. He has also been indicted in three other jurisdictions on 54 other felony counts related to his mishandling of classified documents and for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. In civil proceedings, he has been found liable for defamation and financial fraud. He has declared bankruptcy 6 times, which shows he cannot manage money. He wants to use the Justice Department to punish those who differ with him, and he adores the dictators of Hungary, Russia, and North Korea. The list goes on, but the crowning act of horror was his orchestration of the insurrection at the U.S. Capital.
I challenge each reader to make a list of their values and beliefs and match it up with the values and platform of the candidate they choose to vote for as president. Don’t knowingly use rationalization to allow you to vote for a candidate who is the opposite of your value system and beliefs.
Spot on! I’ve been thinking a lot about this, how Republican leaders must be leaning in hard on rationalizations and other defensive coping mechanisms to keep cognitive dissonance at bay. And as a country, where have our critical thinking skills gone? Every high school (middle school?) student should be required to take critical thinking courses as part of a foundational curriculum.