Cognitive Dissonance Theory

Let's say that you were told to do something really, really boring for about an hour for $20. You'd think that you'd enjoy the stupid activity more than if you, say, were paid $1 for performing the task… But, in actuality, it's the complete opposite! This study was once performed, and those that were paid $20 were vocally opposed to performing the task, whereas those who paid $1 didn't hate it as much, somehow justifying the task. This phenomenon is called cognitive dissonance. The cognitive dissonance theory is the theory that we act to reduce the discomfort we feel when two of our thoughts are inconsistent. The fact that you were only paid $1 means that you would go out of your way to find something about the task that you enjoyed, because you don't want to think that you purely wasted your time for a measly dollar. When we learned about this in class, it got me to thinking, was there ever a time when I fell victim to cognitive dissonance? I couldn't think of a specific example, but I thought of cognitive dissonance through the opposite of the above experiment: if you pay a little bit of money for something stupid, you'll be vocally against it the thing you bought. But if you pay a lot of money for something that isn't enjoyable, you'll still try to justify paying all of that money, so you'll change your attitude toward the thing you bought.