Laws of Behaviour

Mental models for product design

002Effect

Cognitive Dissonance

The internal discomfort of holding conflicting opinions.

Why it matters

This internal contradiction includes the mental conflict when your beliefs don't reflect your actions.

For example; craving fast food, but also wanting to feel healthy, or have the perception that you're someone who cares about fitness.

Often people will address this by:

• Lying to themselves (i.e., opting to believe a lie, or excusing an action as "not that contradictory"). • Changing their behaviour (i.e., an animal-lover deciding to not eat meat). • Adopting a new behaviour (i.e., going for a run to offset eating a cake).

Churn:

• If the discomfort of holding conflicting opinions is too great, the user may decide to not use your product at all.

Feature usage:

• Instead of churning, people may simply avoid certain features. • For example, the user may avoid purchasing your 'chocolate-to-your-door' subscription, even if they eat the same amount daily. It's not because they wouldn't benefit from the service, it's because that specific feature (i.e., commitment) may trigger their cognitive dissonance.

Habits:

• The user may have a natural tendency to avoid habits that they feel conflict with their opinion of themselves (i.e., avoid being addicted to Netflix).

Input quality:

• The user may lie (or exaggerate) how much they do certain things, increasing the difficulty of user testing. • i.e., " how much do you expect to use the gym ?

What to inspect

  • Check whether the experience reflects this: Lying to themselves (i.e., opting to believe a lie, or excusing an action as "not that contradictory").
  • Check whether the experience reflects this: Changing their behaviour (i.e., an animal-lover deciding to not eat meat).
  • Check whether the experience reflects this: Adopting a new behaviour (i.e., going for a run to offset eating a cake).
  • Check whether the experience reflects this: If the discomfort of holding conflicting opinions is too great, the user may decide to not use your product at all.

Common anti-patterns

  • Assuming users consciously notice every place where "The internal discomfort of holding conflicting opinions" could apply.
  • Dense copy and parallel actions that increase mental effort unrelated to the user’s goal.
  • Ignoring downstream effects on churn when shipping this pattern.

Critique prompts

  • Lying to themselves (i.e., opting to believe a lie, or excusing an action as "not that contradictory").
  • Changing their behaviour (i.e., an animal-lover deciding to not eat meat).
  • Adopting a new behaviour (i.e., going for a run to offset eating a cake).
  • If the discomfort of holding conflicting opinions is too great, the user may decide to not use your product at all.
  • Where on this screen would "Cognitive Dissonance" show up as friction or misunderstanding?
  • What would a first-time user misunderstand here in under five seconds?

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