A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 1920s, coinciding with the rise of totalitarian governments in countries such as Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, the Soviet Union, Saudi Arabia, South Africa under Apartheid, and Iran.

The act of publicly disagreeing with and criticizing the government or a powerful person or group

In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information. Relevant items of information include a person's actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environment.

Cognitive dissonance is typically experienced as psychological stress when persons participate in an action that goes against one or more of those things

Lack of agreement