Regardless of which side of the political divide you or your students stand on, here is a real-world example of cognitive dissonance.
“[F]rom 2012-2023, about half of all new [electric vehicle] registrations in the U.S. went to the 10% most Democratic counties” (Davis et al., 2025, p. 1). However, an early 2025 poll found that only 12% of Democrats have a favorable opinion of Elon Musk (Kiley & Asheer, 2025), the owner of Tesla, Inc. Those data make it unsurprising that Tesla sales are in down in states that lean politically toward Democrats, such as California (Sriram, 2025).
If the politics of a company’s owner don’t mesh with your own, it’s usually pretty easy to avoid buying that company’s products. But what if you already own the product?
Tesla owners who don’t like Musk’s political stance are experiencing cognitive dissonance.
- “I paid tens of thousands of dollars for this car. A portion of that money went directly into Musk’s wallet.”
- “I am completely opposed to what Musk has done as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).”
After explaining cognitive dissonance, explain the dissonance left-leaning Tesla owners may be experiencing. Next, invite students to work in small groups to generate ideas as to how Tesla owners may be resolving their dissonance.
After groups have had a chance to discuss, invite each group to share one dissonance-resolving idea.
Complete this activity with some examples of dissonance reduction strategies discussed in this New York Times article (Knight, 2025).
- Change A. Sell the car and donate the proceeds to charity. While a Tesla owner cannot go back in time and not buy the car, they can offset the money that went to Musk in the sale by giving the money to a charity that aligns with their own beliefs and politics.
- Change B. Conclude that the good that Musk has done outweighs the bad.
There are some ingroup/outgroup dynamics happening here, too, that you may want to share with students. Tesla owners are concerned that they will be perceived to be—by virtue of Tesla ownership—in agreement with Musk’s politics. Those who are not in Musk’s camp are looking to distance themselves from him.
- Display an anti-Elon bumper sticker (to make it clear that the Tesla owner is not in Musk’s ingroup).
- Remove the Tesla logo from the car (also to make it clear that the Tesla owner is not in Musk’s ingroup).
References
Davis, L. W., Li, J., & Springel, K. (2025). Political ideology and U.S. electrical vehicle adoption (No. 33591; NBER Working Paper Series, pp. 1–54). National Bureau of Economic Research. http://www.nber.org/papers/w33591
Kiley, J., & Asheer, N. (2025). Public anticipates changes with Trump but is split over whether they will be good or bad (pp. 1–49). Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/02/PP_2024.7.2_views-of-trump_REPORT.pdf
Knight, H. (2025, April 26). In Marin County, there’s trouble in Teslaville. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/26/us/marin-tesla-owners-musk.html
Sriram, A. (2025, April 16). Tesla’s market share in California sinks amid backlash against Elon Musk. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2025/04/16/teslas-california-collapse-market-share-drops/83132456007/
