Question

Why would a dissonance theorist joke that no decisions feel like good ones, so we have to convince ourselves that they are?

Answer 1

• Cognitive dissonance occurs “when your ideas, beliefs, or behaviors contradict each other.” If you think you’re financially responsible but then feel guilty spending $400 on a new pair of shoes, you’re experiencing the weight of cognitive dissonance. When you buy a new computer but look up reviews and prices afterward to convince yourself it was a smart purchase, the stress of cognitive dissonance is driving your behavior.
• You can return the $400 pair of shoes, or you can keep them and tell yourself they’re handmade in Italy and will be a wardrobe staple for years to come. You can search and search until you find a better computer at a better price, or instead comfort yourself in the changed belief that it was a good investment and what really matters is that you no longer have to worry about your programs constantly crashing.
• Cognitive Dissonance theorists explains how that mismatch drives our behaviours,the urge to pacify and rectify ourselves, even when no one is watching.Cognitive dissonance plays many roles in our lives, ranging from self-denial to simply getting through the day.
• Psychologists call the cognitive dissonance we experience in decision-making the “free-choice paradigm.” When it comes to making decisions, usually we’re not presented with one perfect option, which means we have to weigh one imperfect option against another imperfect option (there are pluses and minuses to both), which creates dissonance.
  
• You know the feeling when you're ordering an ice cream cone and you pick chocolate, then immediately wonder if caramel swirl would have been the better pick? To convince yourself you have made the right decision you might tell yourself it doesn’t matter if the caramel flavor was better, you were in the mood for chocolate anyway.
• No one wants to admit they made a bad decision. Your brain gets that and will instinctively adjust your attitude to support the choice you made, making what you chose seem more attractive and what you didn’t choose less so.
• Many times,even if we make a bad decision,we become so entrenched in our belief that it was right that we will fight to prove it.We can't handle the dissonance in our minds,so we find anything to prove our decision was right.