Cognitive Dissonance - Contradiction Between One's Words and Actions

[Guest e Yer]

I stumbled upon a new word, cognitive dissonance, while viewing the History Channel's "The Prophets of Doom" discussion series (timecode 20:09 - 21:09). Can one of you call in and bounce this off Stefan? I'm too shy. Apparently it is a inverse relationship between one's mindset and impending danger. So people living 5 miles from a potential dam break, are very concern but those living next to the dam are in complete denial of the impending danger and thus a very optimistic and unconcerned. This sounds like the U.S. citizens who are unconcerned about the seriousness of an impending financial failure. A worker at my workplace allegedly and negligently added motor oil to the transmission fluid in a minibus. He carries himself without any embarrassment or concern about what he did (the whole transmission and torque converter needs to be rebuilt or replaced.) Sure sign of cognitive dissonance. Recalling incidents in the past, I can identify many cases of cognitive dissonance among in people in my past. This to me seems to be the "human nature" of the species. Procrastinate, unconcern yourself with problems that need your immediate attention until the water dam of problems reaches a breaking point. Look at the U.S. debt. The Federal Reserve (aka Central Bank) Is going to buy $10 billion less bonds per month starting in February. (China, Japan and other countries own a fraction of the U.S. debt of $17 trillion but by far the Central Bank owns the rest.) The whole economics is held in place because global suppliers of goods to the U.S. are still willing to accept the U.S. dollar as payment. Thoughts anyone?

[Wuzzums]

You got a part wrong. While in fact cognitive dissonance arises from holding two opposing ideas in the mind, it is by no means a nice experience. The term is used to point to the discomfort, not the logical fallacy. Because the mind constantly tries to make sense of the world and it will integrate any new information into its model of reality. And if the two pieces of information contradict each other and the mind tries to integrate them both, it will create all sorts of discomfort. Which will disappear of the problem is solved.

 

The term I found to be strongly related to Orwell's "doublethink" idea. When two opposing facts create cognitive dissonance in a normal person, doublethink is described as the ability to feel no such discomfort at the contradiction of facts. Can't really point you to a specific podcast unfortunately but I'm almost certain it exists. I know Stefan addresses doublethink in earlier podcasts, and cognitive dissonance is just one step away.

[Guest e Yer]

Dear Wuzzums:

Thank you. I just wanted to introduce a psychological concept that might explain the passive, complacent behavior of people in these times of growing financial crisis.

[Omega 3 snake oil]

Great concept for people to be aware of, for sure. It has endless applications in the realms of philosophy, soft science, and sometimes even hard science. I have a practical example I'd like to share.  I have a close friend who is a practicing Christian. He and I are in agreement on many issues both great and small (e.g. the breakdown of the family being a main cause of a lot of social issues and personal issues that manifest as social issues) but we are vehemently opposed to one another on a couple of big issues. Not surprisingly the issues we are opposed on are those that directly or indirectly arise from my friend's reliance on Christian ideology.

 

Some of these are obvious, e.g. his believing Jesus is the son of God and will save all those who submit to his power and grace, and some are less obvious, like his now-dashed but for several months, sustained support of Toronto mayor Rob Ford. Before the allegations of Ford's nefarious dealings ever arose, I said to my friend,  that man is an embarrassment, and I bet will cause huge problems for the city. My friend defended Ford almost without thinking, saying, That guy is so helpful to the city, he just wants to save us money, blah blah, all the nonsense Ford has used to self-promote. Then the allegations happened, and my friend said, they were probably unfounded or exaggerated, etc. He still wouldn't admit there was anything fishy about the mayor, until finally came the mayor's admission that the video did in fact exist. At that point, my friend forced or perhaps allowed himself to say that I had been right. But it took a form of undeniable evidence (an uncoerced, public confession and apology for him to do this).We had a similar conversation about a recent police shooting that left a mentally ill eighteen year old dead. My friend says, it's the police's job to protect us, he was only doing his job, blah blah, etc.  And my friend is an intelligent person. He just believes in patriarchy, including a devoted and unquestioning respect and admiration of authority figures, which includes government use of deadly force, etc.When I tell him things like, the real and primary reason police use deadly force is to send the message not to disobey them, i.e. they are enforcing the state by enforcing patriarchy, my friend gets irritated. Only irritated, never mad, because he is a really great guy. But his irritation is from something like a mosquito sucking blood from the part of his brain that hold dubious ideas that support his emotional needs.

 

Cognitive dissonance. 

[aeonicentity]

Specifically regarding your coworker:

 

Shit happens. Would it do anyone any good if he was running around pulling his hair out and handing in his resignation to the boss because he blew up a transmission? No. Be careful not to mistake people not reacting the way you'd like them to or think they should with cognitive dissonance. Its possible those people who live next to the dam do so to save 20 min. on their commute, or to get the breath-taking view of the canyon. Its worth the risk to them.

 

Cognative Dissonance can and should be more closely linked towards behaviors which are obviously bad and have no rational justification, such as a woman being loyal to the man who is a convicted child molester, or a person who says "I love you so much!" while beating his wife.

[Guest e Yer]

The problem facing many people who seek a non-government society (anarchy) are statist who justify or make excuses for the existence of the U.S. government system. As the U.S. gets closer and closer to a financial crisis, you can expect a lot of state supporters to display cognitive dissonance by demonstrating extremely positive views of life with the existing government. Our current situation demonstrates how a democracy enslaves the slim minority at the benefit of the slim majority. A lot of baby boomers are at the end of their productive working life, and have no nest egg to take care of them and they have a vote. Their votes to continue this inevitable bankrupt system in the U.S. enslaves all those who don't depend on the government for support. Retirees on social security or government pensions are hard-core example of cognitive dissonance in the face of impending crisis. At this point in their life, these people have no other choice but to pray and hope for continued government to sustain their economic survival. True optimistic cognitive dissonance on the outside, deep worries and concerns on the inside.

 

"We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality." Ayn Rand quote from Freerepublic.com, The 20 best quotes from Ayn Rand.