Cognitive dissonance is when things that a person knows are in conflict with each other and can result in psychological tension. Let us look at an example.
I like popovers. I like them because I like the way they taste. They have a distinctive appearance and I have come to know that food with that appearance has the taste that I like.
Gretchen found a recipe for herb popovers. She did not tell me they were herb popovers. She just said they were popovers. I saw them and they had that distinctive appearance that I had come to associate with the taste I like. But these did not taste that way. They looked like popovers, but they did not taste like popovers. I said, “What is wrong with these popovers?”
I was experiencing cognitive dissonance because things that looked like the things I like the taste of did not taste like what they looked like. Got that? As far as I know, they could have been very tasty, but my first reaction was that something was wrong with them. My mind would not let me judge them on their own merits because every time I bit into one I expected to taste what I knew a popover tasted like. I might as well have been eating a bar of soap.
Not to worry though. We do not have herb popovers anymore.
Another example… I love pecan pie. Somebody brought a sweet-potato pecan pie to work the other day. I did not know it was a sweet-potato pecan pie. Before it was cut, it looked just like a pecan pie. As soon as it was cut, I could see that it was not a pecan pie. I had to leave. I could not do that to myself again.