Cognitive Dissonance explains how and why we lie to ourselves in the way we deal with two thoughts that contradict each other; and how we deal with this contradiction. It also explains so many of our everyday behavior.
To understand better, here are Morton Hunt examples of effects of Cognitive Dissonance.
1. When trying to join a group, the harder they make the barriers to entry, the more you value your membership. To resolve the dissonance between the hoops you were forced to jump through, and the reality of what turns out to be a pretty average club, we convince ourselves the club is, in fact, fantastic.
2.People will interpret the same information in radically different ways to support their own views of the world. When deciding our view on a contentious point, we conveniently forget what jars with our
3.People quickly adjust their values to fit their behaviour, even when it is clearly immoral. Those stealing from their employer will claim that "Everyone does it" so they would be losing out if they didn't, or alternatively that "I'm underpaid so I deserve a little extra on the side."
Being aware of this can help us avoid falling foul of the most dangerous consequences of cognitive dissonance: believing our own lies. I assume that almost everyone who reads this post would agree that this has happened to you.
2 comments:
Cognitive Dissonance is something I can relate to. The example about the group applied to me in high school. I hated working together with people, it made me feel awkward. I guess I did put up a wall, and unless I was genuinely interested in the topic of the group, I didn't enjoy working with other people.
I like your third example, i think its funny how we do try to justify things that we do, even if they ae bad, so that we make ourselves feel better. this is also completely unhealthy.
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