People tend to seek consistency in their attitudes, so when we hold two contradictory beliefs and our thoughts do not align with our actions, we may experience discomfort.
Whether we’re aware of it or not, this inconsistency — called cognitive dissonance — can motivate us to seek ways to reduce the unpleasant feelings it causes, such as by rejecting or avoiding new information.
(You know that drinking too much alcohol is harmful to your health, but you do it anyway and rationalize it by pointing to your high stress levels.)
Interested in how all of this manifests in everyday life, Reddit user Independent_Ad_3915 asked everyone else on the platform, “What’s the worst example of cognitive dissonance you’ve seen in real life?“
Here are some of the answers they have received. It sounds like we’re pretty good at lying to ourselves.
#1
Ugh. I had a (now ex) best friend who had a pregnancy scare. She was super pro-life, very conservative Republican. I asked her what she was going to do and what support she needed from me, and she said she was considering getting an a******n if she was pregnant. When I seemed surprised, she said, “well, it’s different for me. I’m not a s**t like those other girls. I’m not ready for a baby. It’s different…” We stopped being friends after that. I couldn’t handle it anymore.
wannabeginger , cottonbro studio Report
Final score: 301points 
Jill Rhodry Jill Rhodry Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Yes, I’m sure it’s ‘different’ for all the conservative politician’s wives, daughters, girlfriends when they can afford to go interstate for a medical procedure.
185 185points reply View More Replies… #2
People who purport to live their lives like Jesus, and yet are hateful and judgmental, and non-accepting which is the exact opposite of what the man was about, historically.
Interesting_Gift4953 , JCWilmore Report
Final score: 273points 
Makabert Abylons Makabert Abylons Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago (edited) Report
And to think their god is the one true… 3.000 “active” gods on this planet. At least 18,000 different gods, goddesses and various animals or objects have been worshipped by humans long time before humans invented Jesus and god..to think your young god is the one, that is the hight of ignorance.
41 41points reply View More Replies… #3
Brexit voters who live in Spain and other parts of the EU. Voting to kick out foreigners without realising that they are the foreigners is peak cognitive dissonance.
No-Village-6781 , Franz Wender Report
Final score: 266points 
Red Reilly Red Reilly Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
This was the stupidest thing we have done recently, OH seeing all the Brits living in Spain, moaning that they are getting screwed over, YOU VOTED FOR THIS!! It is your fault!
86 86points reply View More Replies… #4
Illegal immigrants are taking our jobs!
I wouldn’t have a problem with illegal immigrants if they would work instead of coming here to live off of welfare!
Said within minutes of each other out of the same mouth.
Final score: 232points 
pfeils wife pfeils wife Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
If it’s been said once, it’s been said a thousand times. We are all immigrants. The USA thrives with immigrants.
95 95points reply View More Replies… #5
Republicans blocking Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland to the SCOTUS because, by their argument, “It was too close to the election (more than a year away), and we should let the people decide the next president first before we name a new SCOTUS member.”
Then, within *3 months* of the 2020 election, RBG dies and Republicans rush in and confirm their nominee as fast as they can before the election to make sure it’s stacked with another conservative in case Biden wins.
There is just no excuse for that blatant, absolutely transparent level of hypocrisy.
Such defines the American right-wing.
Final score: 223points 
Aaron W Aaron W Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
They know they are lying. You know they are lying. You know they know they are lying, and they know you know they are lying. They just don’t care.
109 109points reply View More Replies… #6
People who have generational wealth, but then claim they “pulled themselves up by their bootstraps” and “worked their a*s off to get where they are,” while claiming everyone else is just lazy.
Whatchab , Alexander Mils Report
Final score: 212points Stephanie Did It Stephanie Did It Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
“Pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps” is literally impossible. You cannot physically lift yourself up by pulling on the thing you’re standing on. So the delusion that they’ve self-levitated is popular with these toxic people.
67 67points reply View More Replies… #7
“This weather is crazy!!! It was never like this when I was a kid.” meets “climate change is a hoax.”
Final score: 211points pfeils wife pfeils wife Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Echo chamber.
26 26points reply View More Replies… #8
For those of us who work/have worked in retail during the holiday season:
“I can’t believe they have you working on Christmas Eve, Boxing Day/insert holiday here…”
It’s you. It’s because of YOU I’m working. Cuz you’re here, shopping on a public holiday. 🙄
Final score: 211points 
Lärry the rat Lärry the rat Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 3 weeks ago Report
I’m not all sure about that. I go if it’s open. If it’s closed, I’m fine. It’s the owners who wants to earn money. Because, if it’s closed, they won’t earn anything. And people will always complain. Just close that stores. At least the employees will benefit from that.
50 50points reply View More Replies… #9
Conservatives decrying they want government to leave them alone while supporting bans on gay marriage, access to women’s health, etc.
NewPresWhoDis , Fibonacci Blue Report
Final score: 208points 
Jared Robinson Jared Robinson Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
One that really f****d me up hard, the right thinks it would be okay to deny their child anti biotics if their religion told them too.
64 64points reply View More Replies… #10
Modern Christianity in the USA. It’s literally the opposite of what Jesus taught.
Final score: 206points 
xxx xxx Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 3 weeks ago Report
Modern Christianity around the world
78 78points reply View More Replies… #11
My mom who rushes to do all the chores herself and then complains when nobody else does them. And then if someone else does it she complains that it’s not being done the way she does it
Final score: 202points Ace Ace Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Said every teenager everywhere…
74 74points reply View More Replies… #12
“This is what happens under socialism” Republicans talking about something happening now under capitalism
Paisable , Karolina Grabowska Report
Final score: 182points 
panther panther Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
But they love socialism for the rich and corporations, just not for the people who need it, because they would have to raise taxes on the rich and corporations.
63 63points reply View More Replies… #13
I will NEVER forget this interaction with a human equivalent of a papercut:
“So, are you getting the vaccine now that you’re pregnant?”
“No! I don’t know what it’ll do to my baby” (IMMEDIATELY takes a drag from a cigarette)
TheSevenDweller , Amina Filkins Report
Final score: 180points Jill Rhodry Jill Rhodry Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
but she DOES know what cigarette smoking will do to her baby..see, there’s a difference 😜
98 98points reply View More Replies… #14
Simultaneously a Chinese bioweapon and just a cold
Final score: 165points censorshipsucks censorshipsucks Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
not just a bioweapon, but also manufactured by billgates as an implant from the illuminati AND also created by 5g radiation. it is in fact four incompatible things. /s
78 78points reply View More Replies… #15
My husband who knows the extreme trauma and is devastated that I suffered so much from being a child victim of abuse and yet angrily defending Mormonism’s unapologetic declaration that clergy shouldn’t have to report abuse when a member confesses it. He’s a securities attorney with high morals and ethics and yet excuses the LDS church of hiding billions of dollars from the govt and their members in shell companies. He supports the homophobic religion despite the fact that he loves and accepts and supports his 2 queer daughters. He could be a case study on brainwashing
MormonEscapee , Darina Belonogova Report
Final score: 164points pfeils wife pfeils wife Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
This OP is a stronger spouse than I could ever be, remaining married to such a hypocrite
106 106points reply View More Replies… #16
Conversation I had with my former step dad:
Me: Ignorance is not knowing something, right?
Him: Yes.
Me: Willful ignorance is knowing you aren’t informed but doing nothing to change it, right?
Him: Yes.
Me: So arent you being willfully ignorant about evolution by not bothering to research how it works?
Him: (instantly offended) Listen. I don’t need to research evolution to know that it’s impossible for a frog to transmutate into a bird.
Me: I agree, it’s not possible. Transmutation isn’t evolution, that’s a term used for alchemy to change gold into silver and isn’t mentioned in evolution at all. Real evolution takes millions of years and happens because of gradual changes in DNA.
Him: (storms off) I aint got time for this
Final score: 148points Makabert Abylons Makabert Abylons Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Some subjects you can’t talk with some religious people about, they have chooses to be brainwashed and dumb. Nothing will ever change that.
36 36points reply View More Replies… #17
An American flag next a Confederate flag. They were opposite sides of the same war
INeedtobeDetained , smwatkins Report
Final score: 142points pfeils wife pfeils wife Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
My neighbor flys a confederate flag and a trump flag. I just want to move
95 95points reply View More Replies… #18
Republicans who spout homophobic rhetoric but then are found on Grindr.
mom_with_an_attitude , Monstera Production Report
Final score: 141points 
Remi (He/Him) Remi (He/Him) Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Or the homophobia is self hatred, which is just sad
43 43points reply View More Replies… #19
My mother told me that many years ago, our family had the children taken and forced to go to a Catholic boarding school. She told me that they cut their hair, beat the kids if they spoke their native language, and forced them to read the Bible and forced out our native belief. The term I’ve heard is, “They sewed the Bible into their hands.” They even outright m******d many kids while not telling the parents anything. I was already horrified, but then my mother told me that we’re a Catholic family that believes in Jesus…
Typical_Credit_4224 , Pixabay Report
Final score: 139points 
Jan Rosier Jan Rosier Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Canada?
38 38points reply View More Replies… #20
Person: I don’t like black people because so many of them commit crimes and are in jail for dealing drugs.
Me: But your son got ten years for major drug dealing.
Person: Yeah, but that’s different.
classactdynamo , Oladimeji Ajegbile Report
Final score: 135points 
Ditto Ditto Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
How the heck does one’s melanin determine whether you are a good person or bad??? Ffs its like that Jackie Chan meme whre he is just so confused lol
60 60points reply View More Replies… #21
My mother, an immigrant, talking about immigrants taking over our country
Final score: 128points Ditto Ditto Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Whats with people’s obsession with hating immigrants almost everyone is an immigrant
55 55points reply View More Replies… #22
People on government disability payments talking about cutting welfare
Final score: 125points Jill Rhodry Jill Rhodry Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
They’re not talking about cutting ‘their’ welfare but other welfare like single parents, dole etc
54 54points reply View More Replies… #23
LGBTQ people who vote republican.
(Although to be fair, I think it’s more about class and race privilege for them. Still idiots, though.)
Final score: 124points pfeils wife pfeils wife Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Again, voting against their own well-being blows my mind
68 68points reply View More Replies… #24
People complaining about other peoples driving while comitting the same errors but its ok because “they are in a hurry”
f_ranz1224 , Glebcallfives Report
Final score: 120points Ditto Ditto Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Hypocrisy at its finest
28 28points reply #25
My ex-boyfriend’s mother would sit on her front porch and complain about the neighbors. “Look at those busybodies, sitting on their porch gossiping about everybody. Did you hear that her daughter…”
She’d also insist her son drive her to the stores first thing after every holiday, so she could buy stuff half price “before the greedy people get there.”
lorinabaninabanana , thekrazycouponlady Report
Final score: 115points 
Ellie Hope Ellie Hope Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
I admit I moan about the supermarket being really busy, my daughter points out that I’m one of those people.
37 37points reply #26
Whole family dies from covid
*covid isn’t real, God just decided it was time to bring them home*
Final score: 113points panther panther Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
And he used Covid to do it.
67 67points reply View More Replies… #27
When the pandemic started, a friend of mine got really obsessed with the fact that you can’t leave your home or go near people without a mask etc.
Only thing is it never reflected in his own actions. He judged others but did not follow guidelines himself. He worked at a grocery store at the time and refused to wear a mask his boss told him to wear, meanwhile complaining about people coming to the store without masks and putting his health at risk.
Jurtaani , Michael Burrows Report
Final score: 112points Kimberley Dillon Chapman Kimberley Dillon Chapman Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
A mask for thee but not for me!
36 36points reply #28
Teachers supporting policy makers who want to cut education funding
sauvignonquesoblanco , Dids Report
Final score: 109points pfeils wife pfeils wife Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
I’ll never understand why people vote against their own well-being
53 53points reply View More Replies… #29
SO’s grandmother died this year, of cancer, that she had for 10 years. She refused to get treated, refused x-rays because she believed x-rays would give her cancer.
Infinite-Condition41 , Anna Shvets Report
Final score: 106points Becklass Becklass Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
This is just sad.
32 32points reply #30
The year before the pandemic I moved to Germany and had visited home (US), I was going for a swim at the public rec center I used to frequent and ran into one of the regulars. Telling him about my move to go to grad school and how college in Germany is cheaper.
While sitting inside the public, city owned rec center, he says “they can just keep that socialist c**p to themselves.”
Final score: 105points Sven Horlemann Sven Horlemann Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Brainwashed is what comes to mind. It is… astonishing.
44 44points reply #31
My alcoholic husband who is completely off the rails and rapidly drinking himself to death and tearing my and our kids’ hearts apart, sitting in his chair rambling on about how sorry he feels for a friend who is dealing with a loved one’s drug addiction.
lmcbmc , Dylan de Jonge Report
Final score: 104points Jared Robinson Jared Robinson Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
As an alcoholic I know from experience that he won’t recognize it in himself until Alcohol or him being drunk does something to completely and utterly f**k up his life.
49 49points reply View More Replies… #32
My parents are libertarian and hate the idea of socialism.
They constantly talk about how much they love the library.
DennisPikePhoto , Guzel Maksutova Report
Final score: 102points Jared Robinson Jared Robinson Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
dictatorships and tyranny that dictators and tyrannists try to pass off and label as communism isn’t actually communism. It’s just tyranny and dictatorships, masquerading as something else. A lot like religion actually.
16 16points reply View More Replies… #33
I don’t know, like 15 f*****g years ago there was a study or poll that came out that said that a higher % of college educated people watch comedy central than watch fox news.
And my mother has never, ever laid it down. Any time we discuss anything she accuses me of “getting my news from comedians”, just because I use to watch Jon Stewart, and now occasionally watch John Oliver.
When the news dropped that Exxon had insider memos knowing they knew about climate change, and their hand in it, my mom and I had a discussion.
I cited articles from Reuters, Bloomberg, and the BBC.
My mom literally pulled up Exxon’s website, and basically said “See? Exxon says it is fine and they are innocent”, and then at the end of our discussion, still came at me for “getting my news from comedians”, when I was the only one who actually cited a news source….
BigBadZord , comedycentral Report
Final score: 102points 
David A Paterson David A Paterson Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
“there was a study or poll that came out that said that a higher % of college educated people watch comedy central than watch fox news.” Comedy Central is less biased and often more accurate than Fox news.
83 83points reply View More Replies… #34
Farmers who survive on government subsidies complaining about the “welfare state”
Final score: 97points Jared Robinson Jared Robinson Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
I hate some farmers. “I just want to make a living” meanwhile they have 3 50,000 dollar trucks millions of dollars in heavy equipment, enough food to feed their family for an entire life time in one sitting, but still they are barely getting by.
12 12points reply View More Replies… #35
My mother showed me a snapshot from her own childhood that showed, in general, her father lying on a childs bed, her sitting next to him between him and the wall. Her brother sitting on the floor in front of the bed, playing with some toys:
“This is my favourite picture from my childhood! All my siblings always whining and claiming we were abused. It’s such b******t. See? It’s just a quiet, calm, happy snapshot of a perfectly normal family. Every time one of them starts up about being abused, I remember this snapshot and know that we were fine. Just fine!”
And so I looked at the picture and asked, “What about the handgun?”
Because my f*****g grandfather (the wildly violent, gambling, womanizing, utter piece of human garbage) was literally laying there in his kids’ room with a handgun in his hand. We aren’t Americans. So like… yeah. That s**t ain’t normal.
She had been looking at that picture for HALF A CENTURY, always patting herself on the back that it was proof that her desperate need to insist everything was OK was in any way accurate, and never in all that time, had she apparently ever seen the handgun.
Mind blown.
Best part? Within a year, she tried to show me the picture again, again telling me about how it was her favourite and proof that her siblings were full of s**t…
So maybe she did see the gun.
Final score: 87points Susie Elle Susie Elle Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Sounds like she’s real deep in denial
68 68points reply View More Replies… #36
anti-vaxxers dying of preventable diseases
Final score: 87points censorshipsucks censorshipsucks Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
thin out their numbers! https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/f2d94771-a153-4381-a819-c76c19567172
26 26points reply #37
A neighbour complaining about increasing homelessness and then talking about how she can barely afford her mortgage payments on her rental property ever since interest rates rose higher. “I’m not allowed to raise the rent past a certain amount so now I’m paying the mortgage out of my pocket!”
Crazy_Ad4505 , Eziz Charyyev Report
Final score: 86points David A Paterson David A Paterson Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Real estate agents cause house prices.
18 18points reply View More Replies… #38
I met a woman whose brother was killed in combat in Iraq.
His pointless death made her….become even more of a Republican.
Because Nancy Pelosi didn’t do enough to stop George W. Bush.
Final score: 83points 
Stuart Stuart Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
I think I twisted a muscle in my brain trying to figure their reasoning out.
43 43points reply View More Replies… #39
My family who constantly make fun of and poke holes in the doctrine of other religions. My family are all Mormons.
Final score: 82points Ace Ace Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
It’s true of nearly all religions – “We’re right, so everybody else is wrong”. It’s what made me realise, aged around 16, that my own beliefs could not be ‘correct’, cos that would make billions of other people, from hundreds of different versions of religions, all wrong and therefore condemned to hell. Yeah, right.
34 34points reply #40
People that vote anti-a******n and then vote to eliminate free school lunches
Final score: 81points 
K- THULU K- THULU Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
So they’re censoring that now? Really?
55 55points reply View More Replies… #41
My mom (who has admittedly come soooo far since this era) used to point out the “trashy” Russian ladies in the grocery store and say that they were using food stamps “paid for by her, and still have an attitude”
Meanwhile we literally were there purchasing groceries on WIC benefits lmao. Glad she’s overcome her issues there lol
sweetiepotpie , Hanson Lu Report
Final score: 80points 
Chelsea McKee Chelsea McKee Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 2 weeks ago (edited) Report
In most cases you have to meet work requirements to qualify for food stamps. We need food stamps because companies don’t want to pay their employees a living wage. Certain politicians side with the businesses over the common employee and say we shouldn’t force a specific hourly wage or demand benefits because they’re conducting business, which is theirs to run.
10 10points reply #42
My uncle refuses to acknowledge or give credibility to ANYTHING animated.
“It’s a f*****g cartoon it’s not real!”
“So if we take the factual events of WWII and animate it, it’s not real anymore?”
“Exactly!!!”
*Face palm*
TripzPanda , Victoria Borodinova Report
Final score: 76points Remi (He/Him) Remi (He/Him) Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Uncle starts watching “Once upon a time, Life” and suddenly his red blood cells disappear in a poof logic
28 28points reply View More Replies… #43
Nepo babies who actually think they’ve gotten to where they are in life because they earned it by being so great when in fact their mommy got them the job.
Final score: 75points V V Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
I don’t really care about nepotism, if people are honest about it. Of course people going to hire friends or family over strangers in most circumstances.
13 13points reply View More Replies… #44
Have a neighbor (in America) with some odd allergies note they prefer to by European market items because of better labeling and more strict control of what goes in the products. While they have their don’t tread on me flags and complaining about mistrusting the government.
Final score: 60points 
OhnoI’vebeencensored OhnoI’vebeencensored Community Member • points posts comments upvotes FollowUnfollow 3 weeks ago Report
Well sure, don’t trust the US government. Some other governments are ok.
19 19points reply #45
Working class tory voters.
Final score: 56points DJR DJR Community Member • points posts comments upvotes 3 weeks ago Report
I once heard “voting republican is for billionaires and fools; check your wallet to see which you are”
60 60points reply View More Replies…
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