Cognitive dissonance is where one encounters evidence which contradicts, or appears to contradict, a core belief. It’s generally very unpleasant, so we try to avoid it. Our unconscious mind helps us here, doing all sorts of things to minimize it, one of those things being confirmation bias.
Your mind develops coping methods to avoid stressful confrontations which would destroy your core beliefs. There are subconscious adaptive responses, to reduce or tolerate stress.
Confirmation bias is one of the coping methods one can use to avoid cognitive dissonance. Confirmation bias is where we seek out evidence which confirms our core belief, and attempt to avoid evidence which contradicts it.
Some other coping methods to avoid cognitive dissonance are:
* Projection
* Gaslighting
* Denial
* Ad hominem attacks
* Diversion (e.g. changing the subject)
* Straw man (misstating the position with which one disagrees to make it less formidable).