Why do people live their lives by using cognitive dissonance

The brain itself is very easy to examine and interpret; however the mind is very unique and rather confusing.

Cognitive dissonance is the “theory of persuasion that states we act first and then rationalize our behavior afterward.” 

This can be related to many to many different examples of doing things first and worrying about the consequences or rewards later. Some include skipping class in order to make up other work, going to a concert instead of doing your work, and even joining a fraternity or a sorority.

Skipping class maybe one of the hardest things for most college students to overcome on a daily basis. 

More and more teachers are making their class mandatory and giving points away for people to come to class just in order for you to show up. However, big universities and colleges cannot get rid of the big lectures, where most of the class skipping occurs. Many people will jump to the conclusion that college kids are lazy and just go out too much, but this is not true. Yes, there are plenty of examples of students not going to class because they do not want to for many different reasons. But there are also many students who do not go to class for other reasons as well. College students are given so much work to perform every week on top of other extra curricular activities that it is almost impossible to attend every single class throughout every semester. Sure, there are the few that do it, although that number is very small. There are many reasons that students need a day off from class and it is not a bad thing every once in a while. This could be to make sure you are healthy, maybe to catch up on some work, or just going out and doing something for yourself.

People believe that in order to be a good student you must go to class. 

Although, it may seem that the student is acting first then thinking about it later. It is easy to see in some cases that it is very easy to rationalize our behavior very easily and shortly after you skip class.

Many people ponder as to why people would join a fraternity or a sorority, which subjects themselves to hazing and other mind-boggling things. 

Being an immature freshman will easily do the trick. Although going through the experiences myself I have seen that it was awful at the time, however it has helped me in the long run. What I saw from the outside being a first semester freshman was the awesome parties, and basically that was it and did not think much more about it. Once pledging actually started I would think to myself “what the hell did I get myself into”, however I knew that it would be for the best in the long run. Now looking back to those long five weeks, I can completely justify the reason that I did it. In the beginning I thought it was just the social aspect of it, but now I see too much more. I am able to see the internal structure of the organization that we have and am learning how it is run. I also have experienced a lot of dilemma and have learned how to overcome it. Most importantly I have made friends that I will remember for the rest of myself. It is true, in the beginning I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but now that I can look back at it, it is the best thing that I could have done.

Being viewed as lazy or immature is a cop out for our elders to think that we are those things. Yes, that may be the cause at the beginning, but once we are able to step back and think about our actions we realize that there was a reason behind why we acted without thinking. This is why the mind is so complex, we do not actually know sometimes why we do specific things, all we know is that in the end it will probably work out and no harm will really come of missing a class here and there. If you miss class constantly then that is a completely separate issue that must be dealt with. This then leads to a quote that I once heard. “If things do not work out in the end, then it is not the end.” This tells us that even if you act stupid at one point in your life, it will all be all right in the end.