COGNITIVE DISSONANCE 1
Cognitive Dissonance
Thomas Nelson Community College
Author Note
This paper is being submitted on April 17, 2017, for Psychology 200-02H course.
COGNITIVE DISSONACE 2
It is a Friday night for a fictitious subject, that I will refer to as Mackey. Mackey is faced
with the decisions of binge drinking and having a good time, which always comes at a cost of
getting sick and having a hangover, or making himself the designated driver so that he could be
fresh and ready for work instead of having to call in sick the next day. Mackey knows that
missing work puts an extra burden on his colleagues but he also does not want to miss out on the
fun his friends will be having while drinking. He rationalizes to himself that “you only live
once”, “I have some sick days I have not used yet”, and “I worked last weekend when two
people were on vacation and I did alright”. Mackey chooses to drink and thus has encountered
what I will be discussing, cognitive dissonance and the theory of.
What is cognitive dissonance? Webster’s New World Dictionary states that cognition or
