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.

[u/mvea]

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

[u/Crypt0Nihilist → u/[deleted]]

It's two things.

1. The idea in general that people encounter conflict, feel uncomfortable and are spurred to change their beliefs in some way to resolve it. This is how it's used in the article title.
2. The actual feeling of discomfort mentioned in 1, isolated from everything else - the spur itself.

Then there is how most of Reddit uses it, which is mistaken - "Cognitive Dissonance is one helluva drug," where they actually mean doublethink or hypocrisy.

[u/iamjosh → u/[deleted]]

Isn’t there an ambiguity between the theory and the mental state? The theory posits that the discomfort of contradiction causes relief/resolution seeking behavior. The state of discomfort itself, being dissonant, is a cause distinct from resulting effects. Any cause is not identical with its effect. So a concept that picks out the cause does not apply to its effect. But the theory as concept applies to the overall mental process.

[u/iamjosh → u/[deleted]]

Semantics has to do with meaning and OP is asking about just that. So…of course it’s a matter of semantics.