Cognitive dissonance

[[File:The Fox and the Grapes - Project Gutenberg etext 19994.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Illustration for Aesop's fable, {{wpl|The Fox and the Grapes|"The Fox and the Grapes"|,}} in which the fox exhibits cognitive dissonance, by using the claim  of 'sour grapes' to reduce the feeling of dissonance.<ref>''Sour Grapes: Studies in the Subversion of Rationality'' by Jon Elster (1983) Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521313686.</ref>{{rp|110,123}}]]
{{Psychology}}
{{hatnote|Not to be confused with the [[RationalWiki:Podcasts|podcast of the same name]]. (Or the [http://cogdis.wikia.com/wiki/Mother:_Cognitive_Dissonance_Wiki EarthBound fan-game].)}}

{{cquote|No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.|||Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter}}

'''Cognitive dissonance''' is a [[psychological]] term which describes the uncomfortable tension that results from having two conflicting thoughts at once, or from engaging in behavior that conflicts with one's [[belief]]s. It is also a description of the behaviors that allow people to soothe, override, or otherwise overcome such dissonance. 

A very simple example of this involves the act of {{wpl|Blood donation|giving blood|.}} You are there and it is uncomfortable, but you know it is a good and necessary thing to do. So when asked "Are you comfortable?", you [[lie]] without thinking and say "everything is fine." You may even exaggerate and say out loud with a smile on your face, "it's great", even though there's a 19-inch needle in your arm. Then, having said you are fine, your [[brain]] subconsciously begins to convince yourself that you are fine to alleviate the cognitive dissonance. This entire process is studied under the rubric of "cognitive dissonance".

Some famous non-[[religious]] examples include:
*After feeling "{{wpl|buyer's remorse||"}} and being unable to return something, convincing yourself that "no, it really was a good purchase" ({{wpl|Choice-supportive bias|purchase justification|).}}
*Justifying the [[Job|work]] you do as important to your community or yourself.
*Believing that fault or error (bad grades on a test, not getting a promotion, getting into an accident, etc.) must be {{wpl|Blame#Blame shifting|someone else's fault}} [[Psychological projection|and not yours]].
*Insisting that anyone in competition with you is bad, [[evil]], and/or [[Persecution complex|out to get you]].

==Resolving dissonance==
The concept of cognitive dissonance was developed and tested by observing some [[cult]]s and observing how they reacted when their beliefs (in the [[end of the world]]) were shattered (by the world simply not ending), first and most famously in Leon Festinger, Henry Riecken, and Stanley Schacter's ''When Prophecy Fails''.<ref>''When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World'' by Leon Festinger et al. (1956) Martino Publishing. ISBN 1578988527.</ref><ref>[http://cogsciblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/25/classic-book-when-prophecy-fails-by-leon-festinger/ Classic Book: ''When Prophecy Fails'' by Leon Festinger] reviewed by M. G. Saldivar (May 25, 2011) ''Cognitive Science Blog''.</ref> As the sensation of dissonance is very unpleasant, most people tend to resolve it by converting their [[knowledge]], [[belief]]s, behaviours, and perceptions so that they are consistent between each other. Sounds [[logic]]al, indeed, but there is a catch: the resolution is usually through the path of ''least'' {{wpl|psychological resistance||.}} For example, when the cults' [[Prophecy|prophecies]] were proved to be wrong, the followers' [[faith]] didn't diminish; to the contrary, [[Backfire effect|it strengthened]], because it is much easier to simply disavow pieces of [[evidence]] as "false", put up an [[Handwave|excuse]], and keep on believing, than it is to change a belief that has grown to be an individual's entire soul, fiber, and {{wpl|Moral character|character|.}} Even their [[memory|memories]] are [[Confabulation|distorted]]; one such person claimed that the date of the world's end had never been given with certainty, and evinced genuine surprise when his own words were played back saying that the world would absolutely totally for sure end on that date.

A prominent political example of resolving dissonance in this way can be found in the various smear attempts made against [[US]] President [[Barack Obama]] throughout 2008 and 2009. [[WorldNetDaily]] editor [[Joseph Farah]] — a key player in the [[Birther]] movement — has a firm belief that Obama is not [[American]], and [[evidence]] to the contrary was dismissed as insufficient or fraudulent. Evidence for such beliefs, on the other hand, is usually blindly accepted by way of [[confirmation bias]].

In summation, the fact that many people can be persuaded to accept a (poorly-constructed) [[argument]], despite — or [[Essay:Why are logical fallacies effective?|even because of]] — it being riddled with [[logical fallacies]], can often be explained by acceptance of the argument producing less cognitive dissonance [[Preaching to the choir|in the audience]] than rejection of the argument would.{{fact}}

Many {{wpl|social engineering}} techniques, such as [[Bait-and-switch#Milk before meat|milk before meat]] and {{wpl|foot-in-the-door technique|foot-in-the-door salesmanship|,}} owe a large part of their success to the exploitation of cognitive dissonance.{{fact}} For example, cognitive dissonance is a large part of why [[hazing]] builds {{wpl|loyalty||;}} if you go through a [[Anal sex|rough initiation]] to get into a fraternity, you'll go to great lengths to convince yourself that the organization is ''awesome'' enough to have been worth it. Similarly, end of the world cultists often give away everything they own shortly before the appointed date, and will go to great lengths to avoid thinking it was for nothing.

==Creationists and cognitive dissonance==
[[Creationist]]s have particular problems with [[scientific]] concepts that conflict with (read: flat-out disprove) a [[Young Earth creationism|6,000-year-old earth]] and a [[global flood]] occurring 4,300 years ago. This causes them either to resort to absurd [[Pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] explanations (such as [[baraminology|baramins]], a changing [[speed of light]], bad faith criticism of [[radiometric dating]], and the infamous "[[banana argument]]") or to claim the [[Big Bang]] and/or evolutionary theories are merely [[belief]]s, saying for example [[plant]]s appeared before the [[Sun]] but the light of God replaced the Daystar and that no other life-bearing [[planet]] exists because the Bible does not mention it, [[Doublethink|but at the same time to have no problems]], say, with [[galaxy|galaxies]] at billions of light years away despite the Bible not mentioning them and an Universe '''''far''''' bigger and richer than anything the biblical authors could fathom.

==Cumulative cognitive dissonance==
{{cquote|People don't like to [[Logic|think]]. If one thinks, one must reach {{wpl|Logical consequence|conclusions|.}} Conclusions are not always pleasant.|||Attributed to Helen Keller (possibly erroneously)}}

Most people will (''eventually'') change their beliefs on a subject after enough contradictory evidence emerges, because sometimes said evidence is so solid and undeniable that it is easier to give up a complex [[worldview]] than to constantly generate excuses why the evidence against the worldview is and must be false. Other individuals, especially when they have support networks of others reinforcing a [[delusion]] or worldview, will go to such great lengths to [[Rationalization|rationalize]] away dissenting ideas that after a certain point, an admission of error would cause the collapse of an entire web of mutually-supporting beliefs. This would leave the brain with no ability to do its work, as everything it thought it knew would now be useless, resulting in agony/extreme fear of [[death]] and the activation of emergency self-protection mechanisms. Those mechanisms cause the individual to either go into an introverted reaction, with all-encompassing ([[Willful ignorance|willful]]) [[ignorance]] and cutting off any contact to those conflicting parts of the [[real world]], or an extroverted reaction of trying to [[Censorship|attack and destroy]] the sources of the conflicting information for [[heresy]].

By comparison, a [[human]] being who would actually go through such an event without that protection would end up in a state of complete inability to accept himself/herself and to choose the “right” actions for even the simplest situations, making it impossible for him/her to continue living. So the former protective reactions are still the better (because it means survival) of three really bad choices.

==See also==
*[[Doublethink]]
*[[Special pleading]]
*[[Reaction formation]]
*[[Hypocrisy]]
*[[Transference]]
*[[Rationalization]]
*[[Denialism]]

==External links==
*[http://www.skepdic.com/cognitivedissonance.html Cognitive dissonance] in [[The Skeptic's Dictionary]]
*{{wpl|Cognitive dissonance}} at [[Wikipedia]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Psychology]]

Categories: Psychology