http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/13/why-married-people-are-smug-and-singles-so-carefree/?iid=obinsite

"If you are deeply committed to a belief and have acted in ways that you think are irreversible as a result, it’s often easier to change your other beliefs and actions than it is to question the original idea.

“Cognitive dissonance happens when we’ve made a choice and we’re not 100% satisfied with it or it goes against something we believe,” says Kristin Laurin, assistant professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University, the lead author of the study, “We feel uncomfortable, so what we do is adapt our attitudes so now the choice fits better with the attitude.”

"The term was first coined by psychologist Leon Festinger, who studied members of an apocalyptic cult. After they had quit their jobs, cut ties with outside friends and family and sold their belongings, the predicted catastrophic flood failed to arrive. The leader gave them a lame explanation that it had been their faith that saved the world. But while some members did quit, many others became even more fervent, in a desperate attempt to justify their already-made decisions to dedicate their lives to the cult.

Festinger and his colleagues and students soon found that a similar reaction occurs in many cases where people have paid a high price for something that fails to deliver fully. In fact, these studies find that the more people pay for something, the more likely they are to see it as having been worth it. Whether it’s wine or a car or even a fraternity initiation, the more you pay in cash or emotional pain, the better you tend to feel about what you’ve gotten."

Disturbing and true!

The Concorde effect.. Sinking effort and money into a failing project, but not wanting to waste all you've done by abandoning it. A very common type of Cog Dis, and churchy types probably face this all the time. They continue on with the facade and we don't even know which ones they are.