cognitive dissonance
Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort you feel when your money habits and your money beliefs disagree, like knowing debt is heavy yet still swiping the card.
In plain English
Aunty Ngozi is at the market on a Saturday morning, haggling over tomatoes to save ₦200, and two hours later she is in a shop paying ₦85,000 for a bag she does not need, on a card she is still owing on from December.
If you asked her, she would tell you she is careful with money. She believes it firmly. But her actions that afternoon do not match that belief, and somewhere inside her, a small argument breaks out. That argument, between what you believe about yourself and what you just did, is cognitive dissonance.
The mind hates holding two conflicting things at once, so it looks for a way to make peace. Aunty Ngozi might tell herself the bag was a birthday gift to herself, or that she deserved it after a hard month, or that she will pay it off easily next month. None of that is a lie exactly, it is the mind stitching a story so the two sides feel less like they are fighting.
This shows up everywhere with money. A man in Lagos who says he is saving for a house still contributes to owambe after owambe because refusing feels like an insult to family. A graduate in Leeds who claims she is debt averse still takes out a payday loan for a weekend trip, and calmly renames it a treat rather than a loan.
It shows up in the diaspora too. Someone sending ₦150,000 home every month while telling friends they are building savings back in the United Kingdom, when the truth is there is nothing left over. The story keeps the peace, even when the numbers say something else.
Naming it is the first step to catching it. Once you can spot the moment your actions and your beliefs are pulling apart, you get a real choice, change the belief honestly, or change the action, instead of just inventing a softer story to live with.
Chidi says his goal is to clear his ₦300,000 loan this year, yet he buys a ₦120,000 phone he saw on Instagram. To ease the discomfort, he tells himself the old phone was slowing him down at work, which makes the purchase feel necessary rather than a detour from his goal.
Questions people ask
Is cognitive dissonance the same as guilt?
Not quite. Guilt is a feeling about doing something wrong. Cognitive dissonance is the tension between two conflicting beliefs or between a belief and an action, and guilt is just one possible result of that tension. Sometimes people resolve the tension without feeling guilty at all, by simply rewriting the story in their head.
Why does this matter for money decisions specifically?
Because money sits at the crossing point of identity and behaviour. We all like to think of ourselves as sensible, generous, or disciplined, so when our spending, saving, or lending contradicts that image, the mind calmly edits the story rather than the spreadsheet, and that editing can cost real cash over time.
How do I stop myself from making excuses for bad money choices?
Write down your money goals somewhere you will actually see them, like the lock screen of your phone, and before a big purchase, ask honestly whether this choice moves you towards that goal or away from it. The discomfort you feel in that pause is useful, do not rush to smooth it over with a story.
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