Psychologists and Marketers couldn’t agree more. Driving change in behaviour is hard work, even more, when a belief is highly embedded in our minds. Either jealousy, product preference, or recycling, our choices are a result of our thoughts and emotions, which not always represent our most logical thoughts. Let’s slow down a little.
According to the principle of Cognitive Consistency our actions and feelings, tend to be a consequence of our beliefs and thoughts. Here are some examples:
Example 1: If you look at the window and see a cloudy sky, (situation) you may think it might rain (thought/belief) and therefore carry an umbrella (action).
Example 2: If you will have an important exam (situation), you might think you are not prepared enough (thought/belief), therefore feel anxious (emotion) and you might either study, ask for tutoring, or leave it for later to get rid of your anxiety (action).
This is the way we make decisions (either conscious or unconscious), including what we purchase and what we consume. If we’d like to change our actions for good, we should work on changing our thoughts first, to deliver a different outcome. When we think or held a belief and don’t act accordingly, we have an annoying, uncomfortable, itchy feeling that is called Cognitive Dissonance.
Cognitive Dissonance is the gap between what you think is right and how you act. If your action is congruent with your thought/belief/value you feel morally satisfied to take that decision. (Ex. Being concerned about the environment and buying the recycled product, wanting to lose weight and starting a diet, caring about your health and going to the doctor). But, if your belief or value does not correspond to your action, you may feel guilty, or somewhere unpleasant. (Wanting to be punctual and getting late to work, cheating on your diet, skipping leg day, wanting to save money and going window-shopping). If the Cognitive Dissonance is high enough, it will force us to take an action to ease our discomfort.
Here is where brands, as “solution suppliers” take action. Basically, they should provide a confused consumer with a solution to relieve the tension of the lack of congruence between their decisions and their beliefs. This is also an excellent opportunity to drive change in consumer behaviour. In the Medium article by Jasmine Bina (https://medium.com/startup-grind/the-cognitive-dissonance-hiding-behind-strong-brands-fa99341175eb) she explains how the brands can reduce our Cognitive Dissonance by having three strategies for it: Change Belief, Change Action, or Changing Action Perception.
Just like physical pain, Cognitive Dissonance is useful. It shows us a lack of commitment to our value system and urges us to take action. It also helps us to get back to the “right path”, and more importantly, it might be the principal factor that drives the change out of toxic behaviour.
References:
Solomon, M., White K., Dahl, D. (2017). Attitude Change and Decision Making. En Consumer Behaviour(189-192). Canada: Pearson.
Bina J. (2017). The Cognitive Dissonance Hiding Behind Strong Brands. February 9, 2019, de Medium Website: https://medium.com/startup-grind/the-cognitive-dissonance-hiding-behind-strong-brands-fa99341175eb
This concept of Cognitive Dissonance is deeply interesting and represents an essential and uncoscious driver for our actions. I studied this concept in an Organizational Behaviour course before. Once we “suffer” from the pain generated by this incongruency, there are two different potential reactions: you can try to reduce this dissonance by, as you said, taking the “right path” and increasing our commitment or, conversely, you can unconsciously start to believe that what you are doing is not that bad. For instance, smoking is utterly dissonant with our desire for being healthy. When trying to reduce this controversy and discomfort, you can take the “right path” and try to stop this habit or, worryingly, you start to believe that “actually smoking is probably not that harmful as it is said to be.” I believe too that companies have an enormous opportunity here: they should push consumers to increase their commitment instead of denying reality when this decision-making process arises.