Give me three good non-JW examples of COGNITIVE DISSONANCE?

by ithinkisee 12 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  ithinkisee

  I am looking for some good practical examples of cognitive dissonance so if it comes up in the near future I can provide some good non-JW examples ... and then parallel it with cognitive dissonance in the JWs.

  Thanks!

  -ithinkisee
• 

  Nathan Natas

  One great example would be the flying saucer/end of the world cult that was the subject of the book "When Prophecy Fails" (1956) by Festinger,Reiken and Schachter. I was able to locate a used copy with ADDALL.com, a most excellent book search engine.

  I did a google search with the phrase ""examples of cognitive dissonance" and got 535 hits.

  That's probably a good start.
• 

  tetrapod.sapien

  okay, good question.

  first a definition:

  An inconsistency among some experiences, beliefs, attitudes, or feelings. According to dissonance theory, this sets up an unpleasant state that people try to reduce by reinterpreting some part of their experiences to make them consistent with the others.

  1. from wikipedia: "Once two cognitions are held and there is a conflict between them, one falls into a state of cognitive dissonance. This may be demonstrated by someone purchasing a brand of washing machine, initially believing that it was the best product to buy. One's cognition is that a good washing machine has been bought. However, after the purchase, one may be exposed to another cognition informing one that there is a better washing machine out on the market (for example, through an advertisement). This then leads to an imbalance between cognitions and a psychological state which needs to seek consonance between the two cognitions."

  2. UFO sightings. people start with an implicit assertion that UFOs have visited the earth and are being covered up by the NSA. then, when evidence is shown to them that no UFOs have visited us, but can be explained by other phenomena, they reinterpret the evidence to suit their own cherished view.

  3. this is not to become a debate, but is just my opinion of a type of cognitive dissonance. creation vs. evolution: when presented with the overwhelming evidence for evolution, creationists often re-interpret the evidence through their implicit assertion that a God exists and caused all, hence ID.
• 

  LongHairGal

  I can think of one offhand. Maybe it is not the best one:
  
  The belief that everybody is your "brother" and that there is "love" there and you should trust and love everybody and the reality you experience is exactly opposite of what you are told is there. You try to bend your brain around this situation and make it work but you can't. You try not to think about it because it will make you depressed.
• 

  tetrapod.sapien

  sorry, i guess my last one was a "JW example" after all wasn't it?

  well, then, let's see...

  3. when someone learns something very disturbing about another family member, they sometimes tend to reinterpret the evidence about the family member so as to not upset their previous cognition.

  ....wait a second! that's a JW example too! damn!
• 

  bebu

  You buy a new car from a persuasive car dealer. When you suspect that the car you bought maybe wasn't the very best deal in the state (which was the part that he won you over with!), you could

  1) now refuse to look at ads in the paper, because they might show you that you were duped
  2) reassure yourself that your car has some trait that would make it more valuable than those other cars, so it only seems that you were duped
  3) suspect that people telling you that they bought the same car as yours for less are all lying
  4) tell yourself that it's alright if you paid more, since all the other cars were bought at disreputable dealers and you have guaranteed yourself a better car with a higher price
  5) get angry and tell all your friends and neighbors to avoid the dealership who cheated you (this would require a great deal of humility in the mix as well)
  6) seek out sympathetic people to reassure you that you really did get the best deal

  In each case, two pieces of information are contradicting each other in your mind. Dissonance is the discomfort you experience in a situation like this. You need to resolve it, and the resolution methods are generally: choosing to control input so as to avoid possible negative information (1, 6), excuses to allow them to exist together (2, 4), or rejection of one or the alternative thoughts (3, 5).

  The whole point being that our consciences like to have everything smooth and non-contradictory. Depending on different factors, we will choose one response over another. It's kind of like fight/flight.

  bebu
• 

  Thegoodgirl

  What is cognitive dissonance?
• 

  bebu

  An inconsistency among some experiences, beliefs, attitudes, or feelings. According to dissonance theory, this sets up an unpleasant state that people try to reduce by reinterpreting some part of their experiences to make them consistent with the others.
• 

  Nathan Natas

  cog Æ nitive dis Æ sonance, Psychol.

  anxiety that results from simultaneously holding contradictory or otherwise incompatible attitudes, beliefs, or the like, as when one likes a person but disapproves strongly of one of his or her habits.
• 

  the bandersnatch esq.

  This seems to be what Orwell had in mind when he coined the term doublethink for people who can believe 2 contradictory "facts" about the Party. This always struck me as the way the average Witness mindset works.