Cognitive Dissonance

people quickly reject information if it does not fit in with their prevailing view of the world.

This is cognitive dissonance
This is a very reactive and subliminal tendency ( system1), which is why logical arguments often fail (system 2).

what is a cognition?

accept the cognition and assimilate
justify your own cognition, by changing the reality of the incoming cognition.
- "So what you're saying is, ..." <-- something totally different from what you actually said.
- "the harmful effects of smoking are exaggerated"
justify your cognition, by creating a new cognition that is more consonant than the incoming cognition
- "Ok fine, burgers are bad. I'll just work out an extra 30 minutes when I get home"
- "Smoking makes it easier for me to socialize"
deny the cognition, outright disagreeing with it and moving on
ignore the cognition
- occurs where the dissonance is too great, and doing anything other than ignoring that cognition would be analogous to pulling the carpet out from underneath

After rejecting a dissonant cognition, the person then moves to attack it, and/or seek moral support from those who agree with them (share the same cognition)
ex. religious cult who believed a spaceship would rescue them. When it didn't come, they claimed the purpose just shifted, thereby preventing the carpet from being pulled from underneath

When someone in a position of authority tells you to believe that a boring task was actually interesting, will actually start to believe it. When told to persuade someone else that the task is actually fun, you will actually remember the task more positively than someone who had another incentive ($$). In this scenario, you have to perceived incentive to lie about it, so you share the cognition "I enjoyed it", which creates dissonance when met with the other cognition "it was actually boring". This dissonance is relieved when the person admits "hey, I actually liked it".

To 2 groups of children, there is a forbidden toy. To the first group, there is severe punishment if it is played with. To the second, there is minor punishment. After 20 minutes, the children are allowed the play with the forbidden toy. For the first group, few wanted to play with the toy. They met the dissonant cognition by justifying that "the forbidden toy wasn't worth playing with in the first place"

People tend to review something more favorably after they have done something consistent with liking that thing. This effect occurs when the decision is notably difficult. The more difficult the decision, the more you will convince yourself.
- *ex. In reviewing 100 items, and then choosing one of those items to buy for a friend, the next time you rate that item, you will give it a better review in order to make your cognition more in line with the action of buying that gift.
  - What's interesting here is that if our choice was to come down to 2 items, there would naturally be aspects of choice A that we like, and the same for choice B. Once we ultimately decide on choice A, we ignore those things about B we like, since that would create dissonance.
- In trying to convince someone else, you actually end up convincing yourself further of your own opinion.

dissonance occurs when in order to get a desired goal, one has to voluntarily subject themselves to discomfort
- *Ex. Simpsons Stonecutters, Homer goes through the humiliating initiation, and the pain causes him to desire the goal even further.

anti-smoking campaigns
recycling campaign
anti-racist campaigns
anti-drunk driving campaigns
donating to charity
promote hatred towards members of a country that your own country is at war with
- "we are at war with them, so they must be bad!"

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