The Causes of Social warfare and the Direction of Civic Education in the Digital Age - Focusing on Psychological Discomfort -

This study aims to identify the root cause of “social warfare” in the digital age in individuals’ avoidance mechanisms of “psychological discomfort,” and to suggest future directions for civic education based on this understanding. When individuals encounter disparate information that contradicts their existing frameworks (schema), cognitive dissonance occurs, which can lead to emotional and psychological discomfort. As a result, citizens avoid the painful “accommodation” stage of restructuring their thinking, but instead remain in “assimilation,” where information is forced into existing frameworks, or even become excluded. Ultimately, exclusion or selective acceptance of external stimuli stems from a tendency to avoid the psychological discomfort associated with cognitive dissonance. The digital environment accelerates this bias, fostering hatred and abjection of other groups, ultimately triggering “social warfare” characterized by rampant non-physical violence between groups. Civic education responding to this need to transform “psychological discomfort” from an object of avoidance into a driving force for learning and reflection. To achieve this, educational content should be structured around “decoupling content,” which intentionally induces cognitive dissonance, and “case-based content” that embodies the complex context of life. Methodologically, it is necessary to emphasize “connection-centered learning” and “cognitive accommodation learning,” moving beyond memorization of knowledge, within an inclusive learning culture that encourages constant questioning and discussion.