But Not By Me
Why It's Hard to Admit to Being Wrong
We all have a hard time admitting that we're wrong, but according to a new book about human psychology, it's not entirely our fault. Social psychologist Elliot Aronson says our brains work hard to make us think we are doing the right thing, even in the face of sometimes overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Dissonance theory explains why people often make terrible decisions. It also explains why they continue to be biased after having made a bad decision. Once a decision is made, we have all kinds of tools to justify it. Right George.
I picked up a copy of the book on my way home from work today. I'm about half way through and can recommend it highly. Of course the reason I'm recommending it is because I spent $25.00 and need to justify my purchase, If you'd like to help with my self-justitification you can purchase a copy of your own.
Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Tavris and Aronson
Comments
No. Buying books is a complete waste of money.
No? After all I've done for you.
Norm, It's Friday! Isn't that a good enough reason?
um couldn't it simply be explained by the the notion that we are so afriad of the consequence of the saying we are wrong that we do anything to avoid it. Shouldn't really need a book written about it...
Of course the reason I'm recommending it is because I spent $25.00 and need to justify my purchase, If you'd like to help with my self-justitification you can purchase a copy of your own. Call me predictable or unoriginal (but uh, if nothing else, at least you know I'm no sycophant) -- that bit honestly made me laugh.
It runs much deeper than honesty. The theory is that if we do something that creates cognitive dissonance we seek to reduce the dissonance by self justification. If we can get others to do the same that helps in the justification and reduces any dissonance. The book has all kinds of interesting studies making the point. One I found interesting was on group membership. They set up a group and required an initiation. They then made sure that membership was disappointing They interviewed them afterwards. The more severe the initiation was (there were control groups) the more they justified the usefulness of what was discussed in the group. Even after being told that it was part of a study, and made to be boring.
Maybe the Chickenhawk College Republicans are lowering dissonance by convincing themselves that they have an illness and not actually intentionally deceiving others while aware of the "real" reasons.
On the personal level, the beauty of admiting to being wrong is that you don't have to make the same mistake again. It's rather liberating actually.
What a load of useless stress, working so hard to obscure an earlier mistake. A mistake you can't fix because you can't admit it's there.
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