Psychiatry and Psychology

Cognitive Dissonance

Motivational state produced by inconsistencies between simultaneously held cognitions or between a cognition and behavior; e.g., smoking enjoyment and believing smoking is harmful are dissonant.

National Library of MedicineMedical Subject Headings2026

Structured Summary

Abstract

Motivational state produced by inconsistencies between simultaneously held cognitions or between a cognition and behavior; e.g., smoking enjoyment and believing smoking is harmful are dissonant.

MeSH Record

Classification

Broader headings

Related Concepts

Knowledge Graph

Loading graph…

Drag nodes to rearrange; hover to trace links; click a node to open its page.

MeSH Record

See Also

MeSH Record

Synonyms

3 entry terms
  • Cognitive Dissonances
  • Dissonance, Cognitive
  • Dissonances, Cognitive

MeSH Record

History Note

69

MeSH Record

Previous Indexing

  • Cognition (1966-1968)
  • Motivation (1966-1968)

MeSH Hierarchy

Tree Number

  1. F02w.463w.188w.305w

AMA Style

References

  1. National Library of Medicine. Cognitive Dissonance. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). 2026. Unique ID D003073. http://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/2026/D003073
  2. Cognitive Dissonance. In: Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance
  3. Cognitive Dissonance. In: Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q209722