Climate crisis, anyone? Understanding cognitive dissonance

Climate crisis, anyone? Understanding cognitive dissonance

Today we're talking about dissonance - our cognitive dissonance.

Using our favorite example: #climatecrisis, anyone?

Here, aspiration and reality diverge ideally in order to be able to explain this human phenomenon wonderfully. The knowledge helps us to deal more consciously with our own (non) actions.

💥 The gap between #knowing and #doing is very often large. We all know this well. We are know-it-alls - not do-it-alls ... and -do-it-alls either.

💥 Why is it like that and why, against our better judgment, are we making such slow progress with all our modernization projects?

💥 We find the answer again in psychology: Most of us are virtually forced to consume CO2. Our life circumstances and contexts are currently so. We are thus permanently in the grip of #cognitive #dissonance.

💥 In #psychology, this refers to the unpleasant state that arises when desires, intentions, attitudes and actions do not merge into a harmonious unit. For example, because the desire to be professionally successful on the move cannot be reconciled with the desire to live as #climateneutrally as possible.

💥 #dissonance #reduction is our normal reaction, meaning: we keep a moral account (vacation flight goes because I cycle to work) or the problem is simply denied through social comparison processes. #resilience

💥 We can only perceive #reality through social comparison processes. What other people do significantly influences how we evaluate our own thoughts and actions. A neighborhood in which everyone drives an SUV is more likely to come to the conclusion that ours doesn't make much difference either.

💥 #Individual, #collective, #national ... we always find someone who does even less, á la "China continues to blow much more CO2 into the air than we do. And we do around with a dredged coal village!"

💥 For the #psyche, this is good. But it prevents us from feeling obliged to do more.


That #Germany becomes a net zero emissions country, for example, is primarily the responsibility of business and politics.

But we all have a responsibility to ensure that the right laws are passed. We can vote, donate, demonstrate, make appropriate consumption decisions.


#psychology #futureofwork #transformation

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