Glossary
Incompatible beliefs
What is the incompatible beliefs technique?
Incompatible beliefs is a technique that highlights a mismatch between someone's behavior and their self-image, with the intention of creating discomfort.
How it relates to cognitive dissonance
The aim is to make the inconsistency uncomfortable—a cognitive dissonance approach. This differs from simply showing a numerical gap between performance and a goal: the mismatch concerns who the person believes they are. Noticing an inconsistency does not establish that the person will resolve it by changing the behavior.
Illustrative example
A manager who describes themselves as fair is asked to consider why they offered a valuable assignment to one colleague while overlooking another equally qualified colleague. The question brings their self-image and behavior into the same conversation.
Evidence and limits
The original BCT Taxonomy v1 definitions identify this as technique 13.3. The intended next step is changed behavior, but the manager might instead justify the choice or reject the comparison. Highlighting a contradiction is not the same as resolving it.