The act of completely denying or ignoring certain facts because they conflict with our own beliefs whether accurate or not.
Slide 3
How Cognitive Dissonance Affects Beliefs
If people are not forced to agree with something they don't believe in, then they actually tend to deny any new or different information presented to them.
If unconfident about their beliefs, they tend to dig in even harder to defend their position.
If people are forced to agree with something they don't believe in, the more it occurs the more they begin to change their beliefs.