The Importance Of Cognitive Dissonance In Society

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In societies across the world there are rules that are stated and clear, and some that are a little harder to acknowledge. There are 3 levels of these types of rules: the least strict, folkways are usually called being polite, then mores are stricter, usually being a core value of a society, while laws are written out and the most strict, they’re usually imposed by governments and are clear-cut, calling something legal or illegal. All of these are different levels of social norms, they’re connected by the restrictions they impose on an individual usually by society but differ in their repercussions. Over Spring Break I broke a More in Target. Late Thursday night, my friends, Rie, Nathan, and I all went to Target. The store was relativity empty…show more content…
Cognitive dissonance, is basically having two ideas of yourself or something in your mind that clash with one another. To get rid of the inner turmoil people will justify their actions or even believe in their original opinion stronger. The cognitive dissonance I felt was the result of me being treated like a teenage delinquent in a store while remembering my active role in my school. At school, I’m a leader who proudly displays C.A.T.S (Chatter, Attitude, Trustworthiness, Spirit). I’m in multiple groups like Student Council and I’m a Freshman Focus Leader so I already have the image of myself as a good kid. This image clashed with my delinquent image after I got yelled at by the Target Employee. Once these two images clashed I felt the inner turmoil of cognitive dissonance and reasoned with myself that I’m a good kid and I just like to have fun with my friends. While this was happening in my head, my friend Nathan talked about how it’s funny how she thinks he cares and why he doesn’t. To this extent, he’s written off the deviant behavior by calling himself a deviant before she could ever call him out for being one. One way to describe this is Deviance Avowal, where someone will love themselves as deviant before someone else can, causing his label to become…show more content…
In every culture, there are different values for every action you can do. There are very few signs that are universal in more than a handful of cultures. Although breaking some social norms can lead to great things like Martin Luther King Junior leading marches across Washington D.C., very few people make the impact he had or have the moral fortitude he had to exhibit Positive Deviance. Examples of Positive Deviance can come from all types of Peaceful leaders from around the world like Gandhi, MLK Jr., or even Emma González. These leaders have amazing fortitude to deal with the public when they broke their own social norms. By each doing what they thought was right, the people in power turned against them but they stayed strong. This eventually leads to their originally controversial and bad behavior to become positive, highlighting them as people striving to better their societies. I hope one day I’ll be able to have the same strength they have to make changes that sometimes may go against the grain, for a good

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