[Kristen]

Cognitive dissonance, or negative dissonance, is a coined term to describe such an incredible power that shapes our lives at our own cost. It’s worth mentioning here, in order to better understand the economic crisis; one must examine the perspective it is seen in.

Before dissonance theory became mainstream in the mid-twentieth century, most people assumed that a person would repeat the action, only if given the proper reward. This ignores two key elements of the human species; Most human beings process information irrationally and the need for self-justification. Dissonance Theory explains these flaws and gives a more multi-dimensional view of the human character.

Cognitive dissonance states two things. The first being that a person feels the pangs of dissonance when a new idea is introduced that contradicts a person’s current idea of something. When Galileo first argued this Earth was indeed round, he was called a traitor and tried for heresy. His idea was not consistent with the current belief “the world is flat” Hitherto, his stoning and eventual death.

The second continuality proves the need to justify our actions can interfere with our understanding of the truth. It also can mold our future ideals. Adam is a 25 year old, faced with the prospect of cheating at an exam. If he cheats on the examine, his opinion on cheating becomes “Everyone needs to do what they do to survive.” The interesting thing is if doesn’t cheat, he will become even more puritan, and the immorality of cheating will seem greater to him. This has been documented in many case studies.

That leaves me with many questions? How can I avoid the powers of cognitive dissonance from controlling my mind? There is certainly not any dissonance therapies or ways to cope except the normal, which include; alienation, isolation, translation, and split identities. Perhaps the two ideals, “America is the best! America is peaceful! America is powerful!” and the one reverberated by the media “100,000 civilians dead! Wall Street corruption! Unemployment in double digits!”, are overcooking our dissonance meters?? Just reading the news is one healthy dose of it.

[Plantagenet]

I hope this doesn't cause you any cognitive dissonance, but people in Greece knew the earth was round two thousand years before Galileo lived. Philosophers like Eratosthenes and Pythagoras even made calculations of the diameter of the earth.

The Romans also knew the earth was round. Around 150 AD, Ptolemy, a geographer, mathematician, and astronomer wrote an eight-volume compilation of the world's Geography including extensive maps of the known world, all based on a curved globe.

[dorlomin]

It is a psycological term adopted by political writers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

Alot of psychology was apropriated by the far left in the 20th century especialy the likes of Camus, Fanon, Satre, Foucault and so on. I will be open though and say I am going on other peoples comentry rather than my own reading. Camus is supposed to be a good read but Im not sure I could handle Foucault or Satre.

[Ferretlover]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kristen', ' ')“America is the best! America is peaceful! America is powerful!”

[lper100km]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kristen', 'C')ognitive dissonance, or negative dissonance, is a coined term to describe such an incredible power that shapes our lives at our own cost. It’s worth mentioning here, in order to better understand the economic crisis; one must examine the perspective it is seen in.

[hardtootell-2]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kristen', 'T')hat leaves me with many questions? How can I avoid the powers of cognitive dissonance from controlling my mind? There is certainly not any dissonance therapies or ways to cope except the normal, which include; alienation, isolation, translation, and split identities. Perhaps the two ideals, “America is the best! America is peaceful! America is powerful!” and the one reverberated by the media “100,000 civilians dead! Wall Street corruption! Unemployment in double digits!”, are overcooking our dissonance meters?? Just reading the news is one healthy dose of it.

[kjmclark]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lper100km', 'I')’m not sure what you mean by ‘incredible power’ or how it can be used to understand the economic crisis. CD is defined as the mental state where a person can hold two conflicting views on the same topic simultaneously, possibly without either being aware of it or being bothered by it. There is discomfort, perhaps embarrassment and even anger when the irrationality is exposed.

[lper100km]

So at what point does a simple difference of opinion between two people, albeit drawn from the same data set, become cognitive dissonance – if ever? This just seems to be normal behaviour.

CD seems to require that there is an absolute truth to which the other position can be compared and therefore destroyed. This is seldom the case outside of the body of science. Absolute truths are difficult to come by, so more often a strongly held position is substituted and therefore believed to be true. Is the holder of such an opinion correct or simply guilty of self delusion?

On other words, CD is simply a fancy name for perception differences, even if they are held by the same person. Self deception is nothing new and resides in all of us from time to time. Observing those traits in others prompts us to explain them away depending on our view of the person - ie “he’s such a sleazebag” or “he’s the most pragmatic person I know” etc etc.

[kjmclark]

Cognitive dissonance isn't between multiple people. It's when a person has two conflicting beliefs or thoughts.

Here's an example. I know full well that cyclists being hit from behind while biking properly on major arterials is a *very* rare crash. I've known this for years, and safely biked for years with only a few minor incidents. For some odd reason, today while biking home, I had a random thought about what it would be like if someone hit me. It really freaked me out. But the real problem was immediately after that, when I came back to reality, and realized I was still in the same world where I wasn't likely to be hit, but at the same time had that mental image still there of being hit.

So right now, I have some cognitive dissonance about the whole thing. The rational part of me knows that it's nuts to worry about being hit from behind; it's extremely rare, and I might as well worry about being hit by lightning. But a less rational part of my mind keeps playing back that tiny little nightmare. I'll probably have anxiety about the whole thing for a few days, while the two parts of my brain hash it out.

Most of the examples I gave above involve a belief that the world works a certain way, and someone running smack up against a wall that shows it really works differently. The whole housing bubble is full of people experiencing cognitive dissonance about how they thought housing and debt works and what's happening. They were told that house prices only go up. All they've seen their whole lives is housing prices rising. They've risen more quickly and more slowly at times, but always went up. They built their lives in part on the assumption that the price would be higher in the future and they could cash out and retire on that. Now they're seeing that it doesn't necessarily work that way, and they're having a hard time adjusting, because of cognitive dissonance - prices always go up, but they're going down - it can't be!

[Kristen]

CD or self deception (as defined latter) is awesomely powerful! It's very easy to do and it can be hard to obtain a different perspective, even if the data stares blankly in your face. As far as the stoning goes, I must of been thinking of a different astronomer. $this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ferretlover', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kristen', ' ')“America is the best! America is peaceful! America is powerful!”

[Bas]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ferretlover', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kristen', ' ')“America is the best! America is peaceful! America is powerful!”

[lper100km]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('lper100km', 'S')o at what point does a simple difference of opinion between two people, albeit drawn from the same data set, become cognitive dissonance – if ever? This just seems to be normal behaviour.