COGNITIVE DISSONANCE FROM AN INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION PERSPECTIVE Olga Leontovich Department of Intercultural Communication and Translation Volgograd State Socio-Pedagogical University Lenin prospect, 27, Volgograd, Russia, 400066 The aim of the paper is to investigate the reasons, types, and effects of cognitive dissonance with regard to intercultural communication. <...> Cognitive dissonance can be caused by the discrepancy between the ways of categorizing and conceptualizing reality through the prism of different languages and cultures. <...> The harmonization of mindsets and the way out of cognitive dissonance are based on the mechanisms of understanding and interaction with representatives of an alien culture in order to overcome communication breakdowns. <...> A high level of intercultural competence requires the ability to identify the reasons for cognitive dissonance and ways to bridge intercultural differences. <...> INTRODUCTION Scholars define cognitive dissonance as an inner conflict, which occurs because of the discrepancy between two “cognitions”: the old, habitual — and new beliefs contradicting the system of our convictions and values. <...> The term “cognitive dissonance” was introduced into academic discourse in 1956 by the US scholar Leon Festinger who consequently did a detailed study of this phenomenon in the context of social psychology and wrote the book A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (Festinger, 1957). <...> In particular, he wrote: “Such formal sensations first of all include the feeling of freedom from one’s inner contradiction (Widerspruchslosigkeit). <...> The essence of the phenomenon described by L. Festinger and other psychologists is as follows: when, during the cognition process, individuals come across new knowledge which does not agree with the beliefs they hold, they experience an inner conflict, hence the name “cognitive dissonance”. <...> In such situations people feel psychological tension and make efforts to reduce the inconsistency between the two ideas or beliefs 49 linguistic competence, verbal Russian Journal of Linguistics, Vestnik RUDN, 2015, N. 4 (Festinger, 1957). <...> They try to come to terms with themselves to resolve the inner conflict. <...> Our observations show that recently the term “cognitive dissonance” has been often used in a non-terminological sense in political, religious, ecological, and other types of discourse as a speculative way to argue the opponent’s point of view — a claim that the other persons’ opinion is unjustified and points to their inadequate perception of reality, e.g.: the cognitive dissonance of maidan, panic <...>