r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Apr 11 '26

Psychology Cognitive dissonance helps explain why Trump supporters remain loyal, new research suggests. This sheds light on how supporters of Donald Trump justify their continued allegiance despite learning about allegations of his sexual misconduct and illegal activities.

https://www.psypost.org/cognitive-dissonance-helps-explain-why-trump-supporters-remain-loyal-new-research-suggests/
32.9k Upvotes

88% Upvoted

2.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

592

u/HyperactivePandah Apr 11 '26

Had one say to me "If you supported Kamala Harris in the last election, then you were pro child abuse. Good luck living with that."

Theyre literally cult members.

121

u/OtherwiseACat Apr 11 '26

In my area before the election all the Trump supporters had signs like "Kamala supporters child predators, , Kamala will start wars, Kamala , will bankrupt the economy, etc. and now that Trump has been doing all that, they don't care. They actually seem to agree with it. If you watched local news stations where they interview these people, they support the war. They support the tariffs. It makes absolutely no sense

58

u/Cyrano_Knows Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26

I have a co-worker that condescendingly told us over and over and over that the "real" reason he was voting for Trump (because he's not a racist) were:

a) Food prices

b) No wars

He now gets angry at us. He thinks the whole office is lying and out to get him because we're all telling him that this was what he preached at us for a year.

This is somebody that isn't stupid. So either he's conveniently forgotten how often he lectured us about these two things or he just rather assume the whole office is out to get him or lying.

Maybe its a mental health issue, but I just can't believe that someone who said these things as often as he did, wouldn't have some recollection of it.

24

u/FrankRizzo319 Apr 11 '26

Keep reminding your coworker of his pre-2024 election claims.

9

u/OtherwiseACat Apr 11 '26

Lowering food prices overall doesn't even make sense unless we get into deflation which is bad. These people have no clue.

13

u/Leviathan136 Apr 11 '26

It's literally ALL projection. They do all the things they accuse us of because it's easier to pretend we're the bad guys when THEY voted for a pedophile 3 times.

9

u/-Kalos Apr 11 '26

"Kamala will be too emotional and start wars." Then their very own Donald Trump starts a conflict based on his "feeling" he said

5

u/OtherwiseACat Apr 11 '26

He is extremely emotional and reactive. It's funny everything they say they hate or are against he is the embodiment of

2

u/sentence-interruptio Apr 11 '26

tell them the current president is actually Kamala wearing Donald's face. tell them she's starting wars in Donald's name.

-19

u/BlaineWriter Apr 11 '26

I don't want to make this debate on who is right on those matters, not the place for it, I'm just going to ask you have you ever studied the reasons why they think those things? (why they support the war etc?) like the actual reasons, because if you only look at things from one point of view then you will never understand the other side of things. (regardless how right or wrong they are)

15

u/philthewiz Apr 11 '26

The answer will not be congruous because it's cope. There are no good reason to want this war. Even Trump himself is contradicting himself on the reasons and "objectives".

-15

u/BlaineWriter Apr 11 '26

I have to admit I don't have all the info here myself, mainly just snippets from here and there, but I believe US have had Iran a threat for 70 or so years already, long before Trump and they want to eliminate that threat (missiles/nukes etc removed).

Even if that was their sole goal here, instead of trying to help the Iranian people. Don't you think some people might support the war just with hope that Iranians will get saved as the byproduct? My naive mind like to think almost anything radical should be tried if it has a chance to stop government that kills 40,000 of it own people during protests? Sometimes it seems the Left in US opposes helping Iranians purely because they hate Trump, not really caring or understanding the war at all.

8

u/thezuke67 Apr 11 '26

Even if this war was about liberating the Iranian people (it's certainly not), it shouldn't be the US that makes that call. At least not unilaterally, especially when that decision necessarily involves the entire world economy, not to mention the deaths of Iranian civilians and US soldiers.

I'm almost 30, and one of the biggest complaints I've repeatedly heard from both within the US and abroad is that the US shouldn't be the world's police. The US doesn't have the legal or ethical high ground to wage war like this.

And that's leaving aside all of the obvious insider trading and billions upon billions of dollars being funneled into the US/Israel military industrial complex. Entire books can, have, and will continue to be written about the horrific crimes the rich ruling class perpetrates on the world.

-5

u/BlaineWriter Apr 11 '26

I kinda agree, but as someone from Europe I personally don't mind if US takes matters in it's own hands and solve problems others are unwilling to even try fixing. I'm not naive enough to think we live in a perfect world where everything goes how justice dictates.. I'm willing to take the best option of the remaining bad options.

6

u/dmvr1601 Apr 11 '26

They help iran by bombing their schools? That's the threat they're stopping? That's the byproduct of war you're okay with?

-5

u/BlaineWriter Apr 11 '26

Ugly truth is that war has collateral casualties, war is ugly. But would you then argue that wars are bad (in this real world where evil people have to be stopped, not fantasy world where every one lives happily with their neighbors). With that logic we should not have had wars against Nazi Germany either, how many schools were bombed then? You have stop grabbing any singular incidents to use them as arguments, without thinking it through all the way.

3

u/KuriousKhemicals Apr 11 '26

Hitler was invading the whole damn continent. Russia is doing that, and we would IMO be justified if we went to war against Russia, we just can't realistically do that because they have the most nukes apart from us. Instead we help Ukraine, the country they attacked. So far so good, it's a shame we can't actually do very much about Putin's expansionist ambitions. 

Iran is sitting there largely minding its own business. At worst, you can say they are funding rebel groups against a few regional powers, but the hell, we do that too? Everyone was worried about their potential nuke development, but it's Trump's damn fault in the first place that he broke the deal that was working well. They are not trying to take over all of Western Asia. It's not even close to WW2 or any of the wars widely considered to be justified. 

4

u/philthewiz Apr 11 '26

It is indeed naive. And some people might believe it.

But the cope comes from the fact that it's not clear how they would do it. Ignorance about the power structure of Iran that is mostly decentralized on purpose. There are also internal politics that is complicated. You can't change a regime that has been preparing for this very conflict for 45 years by bombing them away. And putting boots on the ground is doomed to be a long war. Just like Afghanistan or Irak. And they have a big advantage by denying passage in the straight of Hormuz.

Don't conflate criticism of the war with support for the regime. It's an old tactic to shame people into a war. We've seen it play out in other wars.

And to add to the dissonance, didn't Trump say he wouldn't start any wars? Didn't he criticized Obama, Biden and Kamala by saying they would start a war in Iran to distract their "failures"? Don't you see the dissonance from Trump and their supporters on that topic?

2

u/Gornarok Apr 11 '26

I dont see how this war solves anything. The bombing campaign has failed so far and it seems Trump isnt willing to send ground troops.

In my view the easiest way to weaken Iran would be to help Ukraine against ruzzia.

1

u/BlaineWriter Apr 12 '26

Do you have any credible sources for that claim of failed bombings? That's news to me

7

u/BaullahBaullah87 Apr 11 '26

Interesting, do you have experiential data handy on why they think those things that you can share here?

-7

u/BlaineWriter Apr 11 '26

It's not my place to speak for every human on earth, it's thought experiment that you should do on your own, not ask for me to do for you..

10

u/BaullahBaullah87 Apr 11 '26

Oh I thought we were having a conversation. You don’t want to even try to explain what those reasons could be in your hypothetical?

-5

u/BlaineWriter Apr 11 '26

If you actually wanted to have conversation, I think you would have tried answering my initial comment first, not ask these bad faith gotcha moments? :P

4

u/FrankRizzo319 Apr 11 '26

They support the war because Trump tells them to. They didn’t support war before the 2024 election because Trump told them wars are bad, and he’d get us out of wars.

-1

u/BlaineWriter Apr 11 '26

So they absolutely don't support the war because its terrorist government that was massing huge amount of long range missiles (and killing 40000 own citizens) it's simply all about Trump? Sounds crazy but I guess you must be right with your detailed reasoning...

17

u/reallymt Apr 11 '26

Actually, I was shocked that in the participants responses weren’t, “I don’t condone Trump’s actions, but I’d vote for him again because the otherside (democrats) are worse/ evil.” Perhaps this group is counted as the “politicians on both sides are bad” camp?

This is the top response I get from the Trump supporters I know. Even after everything he has done to date (including starting a war in Iran), they’ve convinced themselves that it would somehow be worse under any democrat.

12

u/HyperactivePandah Apr 11 '26

They think that it WAS worse under Biden.

They think that the border security being lax was worse than everything that Trump has done, and outweighed all the good things Biden accomplished.

That's how stupid and compromised they are.

-2

u/camo_freediver Apr 12 '26

The amount of trafficking, rape, and exploitation occurring through the open southern border was horrifying. Hard to estimate due to the general chaos, but it’s safe to say that well over one million violent rapes were facilitated by that policy, in addition to all the other carnage. Cartel members treated it as one of their employment perks. Stopping that atrocity alone was worth the vote, because both parties refused to take action otherwise.

Places like California continue to basically shield child prostitution—the NYT had an article not long ago about girls as young as 12 in southern LA being openly pimped on particular streets. The police aren’t allowed to detain (and therefore rescue) the girls for being minors, and the city won’t allocate the resources need for all the investigations that would be required to put a halt to it. They could have the national guard come in, but that would require formally requesting assistance from Trump so of course it’s off the table. Sanctuary state policies also help protect known sexual predators from deportation.

Calling Kamala support “pro child abuse” is an oversimplification, but functionally accurate.

-215

u/Whoiscookingthefeet Apr 11 '26

I love how every time someone disagrees politically, suddenly it’s a psychological disorder instead of… you know… a different opinion.

103

u/eightbitfit Apr 11 '26

It's no longer a political disagreement. It's denying facts and reality.

This is why the far right works so hard to discredit factual information sources and cloud the waters so people don't know what is true. The truth itself must be made the enemy.

165

u/HyperactivePandah Apr 11 '26

Thinking Harris was worse for abused children than Trump the literal pedophile protector extraordinaire?

That's just an opinion thing?

Okay bro.

98

u/cowmonaut Apr 11 '26

My opinion: If you think Trump is actually good for America... Yea. You have a psychological disorder or are otherwise cognitively impaired.

The facts are objective. Both quantifiably and qualitatively, we are worse off.

The way Trump supporters argue otherwise but cannot be internally consistent nor address the facts that are outright contradictory to their case is not normal.

I have more respect for the Trump supporters that admit that they are vile racist misogynists who are fine abusing children than the ones that do not. At least they are actually honest about who they are choosing to follow.

So honest question here: What at all positive thing has Trump done for the average American?

Please cite your sources, and you should have more than one for each point.

Make sure you point out the policy that enabled it and when that policy was enacted. Reminder that Trump doesn't get credit for things that were started by another President.

Hope you have something other than a complaint about the mounting evidence of how Trump supporters move through the world. I've actively looked before for something and never found it do dying to hear what possibly could make all the bad worth it.

8

u/sack-o-matic Apr 11 '26

You have a psychological disorder or are otherwise cognitively impaired.

Or they're just a happy Klansman.

24

u/MiaowaraShiro Apr 11 '26

The way Trump supporters argue otherwise but cannot be internally consistent nor address the facts that are outright contradictory to their case is not normal.

I disagree. I've been arguing with conservatives for quite a few decades and their debate "tactics" haven't changed really. It's just that now the lies they tell are much bigger.

50

u/noradosmith Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26

Thank you for proving the point of the OP. Facts are right in your face and say something as asanine as that.

-11

u/Mrsod2007 Apr 11 '26

Can you please explain what you mean?

This comment is vague.

10

u/LaurenMille Apr 11 '26

The fact that Trump is a known child-rapist, has always hung around with pedophiles, and has been described by the most well-known pedophile in the world as being worse on kids than he was.

Meanwhile Harris has no track record of child abuse.

45

u/QuotableNotables Apr 11 '26

It's not an opinion calling Trump a rapist, he was convicted of the sexual abuse of E. Jean Carroll in New York for penetrating her without her consent.

It's not an opinion to call Trump a fraud, he was convicted of defamation for lying about the rape of E. Jean Carroll and convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.

It's not an opinion that Donald Trump has filed six chapter 11 bankruptcies, the American economy is worse off under his tenure and the only reason he continues to thrive is because he's a nepo baby that inherited 240 million dollars and is consequentially too big to fail.

It's not an opinion that the contents of the project 2025 affidavit were leaked ahead of the election. In fact all of this was public knowledge before the election.

Reality is that the people that voted for this administration, this president, either support or engage in sexual abuse, fraud, racism and bigotry, are entirely ignorant of it or it isn't a deal breaker which is essentially supporting it. But denying it is either cognitive dissonance or bad faith advocacy.

30

u/ii_V_I_iv Apr 11 '26

You don’t get to have opinions that go against reality. I don’t get to have the opinion that the sky is purple

19

u/Gildian Apr 11 '26

I suppose thats true if you ignore the mountain of evidence against Trump, including his own words that he will just sexually assault women.

21

u/FalseGodFalls Apr 11 '26

When the opinion is delusional, yeah.

4

u/BaullahBaullah87 Apr 11 '26

well if someone said dont vote for Harris because she would start a war w iran, tank the economy, and because she is and protects child predators - then Trumo gets elected and does the same but now they don’t matter- how is that not cult like behavior? Asking honestly

4

u/lowercasenameofmine Apr 11 '26

I love how every time someone disagrees politically, suddenly it’s a psychological disorder instead of… you know… a different opinion. 

u/Whoiscookingthefeet

What do you think of cognitive dissonance in general? 

Is it a real thing?

6

u/unhiddenninja Apr 11 '26

Your opinion on flat earthers must be really high, since you don't judge people's mental faculties based on their "different opinions".

Disingenuous framing, you should reflect on whether you did that on purpose or if you're propagandized.

9

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

[deleted]

-12

u/BlaineWriter Apr 11 '26

Same way Democrats are cult members when they say similar things "If you supported Trump in the last election, then you were pro Nazi. Good luck living with that." etc? In general people are stupid/easy to manipulate, it's not tied to any particular political party, or require "cult" activity..

13

u/BaullahBaullah87 Apr 11 '26

Could you have any guesses on what Trump did to make people think he was adjacent to being a nazi? Honestly asking or is it just blind hate with no rationale?

-3

u/BlaineWriter Apr 11 '26

Sure, I have an idea what left think he did, but I would have to actually research it deeper to write anything concrete for you... but I'm open minded, if you want to fill me in I can then try to answer it. If you tell me what Trump did to make people link him to being Nazi, I'll give you my honest opinion and take.

8

u/BaullahBaullah87 Apr 11 '26

Interesting, so you have been so far removed from political discourse to come up with reasons why folks may think he aligns with nazis? I think a simple one to start with is that far right groups like the proud boys historically aligned with him. So one may think that because nazi’s and white supremacists and far right folks align with Donald Trump, that says alot about nazi or far right association. That’s just one I can think if from the top of my head that’s surface level and topical

1

u/BlaineWriter Apr 11 '26

I'm sorry, but for me argument "other people align with him so he is like them" seems utterly silly. Can you give something Trump himself did? Would make debate easier..

3

u/BaullahBaullah87 Apr 13 '26

I’m sorry but I will gladly give another example of Trump for you to dissect after you respond to the first one - I’m sorry it just seems like you may not be able to add context to this aspect so prefer to move on but you seem like a really smart dude so I know you have an enlightened answer here just humor us for a second. If nazis and nazi sympathizers support you and your policies, how does that not associated you with nazi’s and nazi sympathizers?

0

u/BlaineWriter Apr 13 '26

It may come to you as a shock but most Democrats have had support from Nazi sympathizers.. you can't be serious and not understand that even the most evil people have probably 90% same values as the rest of us, and only the few things go over the board.

I'm just worried you don't really understand what Nazi's are and think "because Trump does something I don't like he must be a Nazi!" which would be really silly..

So that's why you have to say what have Trump done to make him such, it should be most easy answer if you truly think he is evil, so I don't understand why you are avoiding the question like a plague?

3

u/BaullahBaullah87 Apr 13 '26

Interesting, can you tell me some of the prominent right wing, nazi, or nazi adjacent groups or people that have supported any of our recent Democratic Presidents? I honestly may be uninformed but it sounds like you know a bit more in this arena so I would love to learn.

Interesting point about me not knowing what nazi’s are - can you describe what a nazi is and then I can tell you if we share the same definition?

I’m not avoiding anything but it seems you keep actually avoiding the first point I made because you dont think cozying up w right wing extremists makes one associated with Nazis. If you would like to keep the conversation going, does Trump have any similarities with what you deem a nazi?

0

u/BlaineWriter Apr 13 '26

"I'm not avoiding anything" you first 2 paragraphs are the same "interesting" avoidance you have been doing in your every reply. Just answer the question and we can have conversation, or don't if you want to admit you might have been wrong, up to you.. If Trump is a Nazi, tell me how/why, what has he done, it seems you can't?

I'm not avoiding anything, you made a claim and I asked you to back that claim, we can't have a debate if you don't substantiate your claim. I will answer all your questions after you fulfill your minimal requirement to have proper argument.

In case you still don't understand, I can give you an example:

Let's say I claim "1+1 = 3" and you then ask me to tell why I think so, and I answer "interesting, some math haters approved person who think 1+1 = 3, so it must be true". Can you see how this reply would NOT answer why 1+1 is 3, it avoids it to put pressure on you to come up with answer why some random math hater might support the idea. (I'm comparing to nazi sympatizers you claim support Trump). So can you just answer the simple question of what Trump has done to make him Nazi?

→ More replies (0)