Cognitive Dissonance - What Exactly is It ?

                  This cartoon by Dilbert brilliantly explains the cognitive dissonance theory 


     Cognitive dissonance is a state of mind whereby humans or animals (if they can think),
create an acceptable illusion ('deal with it') of their situation even though their current situation is considered so absurd or contradictory to their rational beliefs or state of mind.Dilbert's cartoon so brilliantly exemplifies this theory. 

    A good example is this fable by Aesop, long time ago, there was this hungry fox, he was wandering around a nice wine estate and chanced upon some lovely grapes which looked so ripe and juicy. The trouble was that the grapes were hanging high up from the branches and the fox had to try its best to jump to reach them. he envisioned that the grapes would be really sweet and melt in his hungry and thirsty mouth.

   So, he want just below it, with all his might, he jumped high up and snapped. He missed it and chewed air. Damn ! he said to himself, so close ! So he tried again and again with all his might and jumped up 8 more times. Again he fell back to earth disappointed and with a mouthful of bitter defeat. Nothing.

   Finally he tried the running and jumping from a distance. 3 more times he tried and failed.
Damn ! again he missed it. 

   He slowly walked away in disgust and told himself : " ah what the heck, the grapes would have probably tasted sour and I would not have liked them at all".

   He created an illusion that it was better not to have eaten the unattainable fruit or goals

   Hence the common phrase "sour grapes".  .