Key points

Cognitive dissonance is what happens when we hold two contradictory beliefs at once.

In politics, cognitive dissonance fuels hypocrisy by pitting values against behavior.

Rather than seeing dissonance as a threat, it can be used as a tool for growth.

Over the last few weeks, many of us have found ourselves wading through two very different corners of social media . In one, people who normally stand against gun violence were openly celebrating a political assassination. In the other, people who usually defend free speech were calling for dissenters to be fired from their jobs. It’s been a strange and unsettling time, leaving people on both sides of the political spectrum calling each other hypocrites.

When people behave in ways that appear out of sync with their stated val

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