Not long ago, I revamped my “Library” section, added all the books I’ve read, and decided to write reviews for each one. For some books, it was enough to reread my notes, but the problem was that I hadn’t taken notes on some of them, so I was faced with a choice: either write a review based on the content or reread the book. For the review of the book *Mistakes That Were Made (But Not by Me)*, I decided to reread the entire book. And it’s true what they say: a second reading of a book is much more effective than the first. I understood this book so well that I was able to write a detailed, coherent, and fairly extensive review of it. In fact, it was a retelling of the book with excerpts from my notes, featuring a very detailed, step-by-step analysis. While reading the book and taking notes, I realized I could write a separate short article on this topic. And for those who are interested, you can check out the notes or read the entire book.
What is cognitive dissonance?
Cognitive dissonance is a state in which a person experiences internal discomfort caused by certain conflicting ideas or contradictory information they possess.
Suppose a person has been convinced their entire life that the Earth is flat. They and all their friends readily believed this and discussed it among themselves, but at one point, their friends switched sides and began presenting this person with new facts and evidence that the Earth is not flat. In such a case, the person experiences cognitive dissonance. Everything he believed before now clashes with completely different beliefs and ideas. He faces a choice: accept the new information and admit he was wrong, or stick to his guns to the end and keep finding new excuses for his views, doing everything he can to cast doubt on opposing views.
What causes cognitive dissonance?
Cognitive dissonance arises from a person’s lack of critical thinking and the ability to view a situation from a different perspective, make various assumptions, and question their current knowledge and the information they have received.
Often, the formation of cognitive dissonance is influenced by the social groups to which we belong in society, as well as by our surroundings and the people close to us. As we receive information, time and again—without even realizing it—we try to prove ourselves right and seek confirmation of this. At the same time, we do everything we can to ignore opposing views and look for various kinds of justifications.
Thus, cognitive dissonance arises as a result of a person having so-called “blind spots,” in which they are informed only from one perspective and refuse to accept other points of view. Blind spots can also often arise from a simple lack of expertise in a particular field, or a lack of education and knowledge.
Who is prone to cognitive dissonance?
The vast majority of people may be prone to cognitive dissonance.
From the perspective of logic and intelligence, these are people who lack critical thinking skills (and this, in my opinion, 95–99% of people) who may possess good practical intelligence (say, being a store manager) but have weak general intelligence (believing in astrology and tarot cards and being unable to use a high school physics course to question pseudoscience in their own minds). This, by the way, is a real-life example of someone I know. I’ve actually written about the differences in intelligence in my book.
If we look at it from the perspective of social groups (the five groups identified by Dave Logan), then, in my opinion, people who belong to a single group—that is, who socialize with those like themselves and rarely interact with members of other groups—are susceptible to this.
When viewed from the perspective of age, both adults and children are susceptible.
When viewed from the perspective of professions, those prone to cognitive dissonance include psychologists, politicians, prosecutors, and many others. At the same time, individual psychologists or prosecutors may often be unaware of this, as they are simply using an approach that was common in their field at the time. For example, the book describes cases of psychologists who used the “recovered memory” method with patients—a technique that was widely used in the 1990s, but which many psychologists today use with extreme caution, while some have abandoned it entirely. As for prosecutors and judges, the book’s authors examined a phenomenon known as the “confirmation bias,” which was not, de facto, a standard practice at the time but was actively employed on a subconscious level by professionals of that era.
Forms of Cognitive Dissonance
How does cognitive dissonance most often manifest itself? Its primary form is self-justification. When a person faces unresolved situations and tries to resolve them in what they believe to be the correct way, they will use self-justification to support their decision. They will also use “confirmation bias” to seek arguments in support of their position and will try to ignore their opponents’ arguments.
Strange as it may seem, self-esteem also significantly influences cognitive dissonance, and the higher it is, the more often a person tends to resort to self-justification. For example, if they’ve hurt someone’s feelings, they’ll use self-justification as a defense—in this case, by claiming that they’re a good person who didn’t do anything wrong, and that the person they hurt fully deserves it.
Pride and prejudice also play a major role. Combined with justifications, high self-esteem, blind spots, and a lack of critical thinking, this can create a very dangerous mix in a person’s character.
Why is cognitive dissonance dangerous?
Sometimes cognitive dissonance doesn’t pose any particular threats or problems and may end as a disagreement among friends or a conflict with one’s own conscience. But there are also more serious situations in which, as a result of wrong decisions stemming from cognitive distortions, innocent people are sent to prison for long periods, or people’s entire lives are ruined after visiting psychotherapists who use questionable methods. You can read more about these and many other examples in the book *Mistakes That Were Made (But Not by Me)*.
How can one properly resolve cognitive dissonance?
- You need to acknowledge the existence of blind spots. There are no perfect people with perfect knowledge. We can all be wrong about something. Simply knowing that blind spots exist is a good start; it’s even better if you know exactly what your blind spots are.
- Assume that you might be wrong, and question your own thoughts and decisions. Double-check incoming information and listen to other points of view.
- Admit your mistakes rather than using excuses to dig yourself deeper into a hole and make the situation worse.
- In the public sector and civic activities, to avoid mistakes that may be made by decision-makers, it is necessary to establish independent commissions and bodies capable of identifying such errors and abuses and correcting them, adjusting them, or sending them back for revision and review.
