Cognitive dissonance

When your actions and your beliefs disagree, your brain quietly edits the belief so you don't have to feel like a hypocrite.

Definition

The mental discomfort that arises when a person holds two contradictory beliefs, or acts in a way that conflicts with a belief, motivating rationalisation to restore consistency.

Step 1

Predict first

In one or two sentences, what do you think this concept means? Wrong is fine; the small struggle is what makes the answer stick.