Cognitive dissonance theory explains the phenomena that a person experiences when there is inconsistency between two of their beliefs or a belief and an action. For example, one feels the mental distress that cognitive dissonance provides when they smoke a cigarette, but know it is bad for them and something they should not be doing. To avoid or reduce the phenomena of cognitive dissonance, people often employ one of the following three mechanisms: selective exposure, postdecision dissonance, or minimal justification.

An example of this would be AMC’s Breaking Bad. Protagonist and high school chemistry teacher, Walter White, knows that cooking and selling meth is not a moral thing to do. However, when he is diagnosed with cancer, he begins to cook and sell meth to make money to pay his medical bills and support his family. Walter feels the phenomena of cognitive dissonance when he enters the dangerous and illicit practice of cooking and dealing meth. I couldn’t find a specific scene where Walter expresses his remorse or regret for his actions, however the attached video is a montage of Season 1, in which you see Walter stressed and upset over his new life. In addition, towards the end of the video he makes a list of the cons of cooking meth and his recent actions. On the list you can see he writes, “You won’t be able to live with yourself,” and “murder is wrong.” Clearly, Walter is feeling cognitive dissonance toward cooking meth and the collateral murders that he committed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By2fcaX7VVA