The Cognitive Dissonance Of Cognitive Dissonance (The Overview Version)
HAL 9000 and Juror 8 Debate: Is Cognitive Dissonance Psychological or Simply A Lie?
Important Things First: Leon Festinger's concept of cognitive dissonance attempts to explain how humans navigate the discomfort of conflicting beliefs, undesired outcomes, or unmet expectations by adjusting their attitudes or rationalizing their behaviors. There may be a much simpler explanation.
Two Versions: This essay comes in two versions. This is the overview version, which is straightforward and concise. There is a more in-depth version that explores over 50 mental models related to the concept of cognitive dissonance located here.
Questions Before Answers:
What is the difference between cognitive dissonance and lying?
Can humans objectively analyze themselves more effectively than a computer?
Does the phrase, "It's not me, it's you," summarize the concept of cognitive dissonance?
What happens when flawless logic meets flawed humanity?
How does the intrinsic versus extrinsic perspective clarify cognitive dissonance and lying?
Cognitive Dissonance: A Debate on Conflicted Thinking
Setting the Stage: Imagine two entities exploring whether cognitive dissonance is a complex human condition or simply telling ourselves a lie because we don't want to face the truth. One entity is rigid and logical, while the other is predisposed to logical questioning. They meet in a debate.
The Singular vs. The Singularity: Let's consider two movie characters and their perspectives for this debate. We'll compare the character Juror 8 from 12 Angry Men. He will represent deductive and persuasive human logic with the practical, cold, analytical, and methodical sentient artificial general intelligence computer, HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The Debate Topic: The Cognitive Dissonance Of Cognitive Dissonance: The debate begins with HAL 9000 and Juror 8 getting ready to debate whether cognitive dissonance is an actual psychological condition or simply a lie humans tell themselves to make them feel better.
But What is Cognitive Dissonance? Cognitive dissonance is a psychological term that refers to a person's discomfort when their behavior does not align with their values or beliefs. For example, someone who knows smoking cigarettes is terrible for them might try to rationalize their behavior by telling themselves that the stress relief they experience from smoking outweighs the physical harm caused by it.
The Contenders: If you have not seen these classic films, or if it's been a while, here's a quick recap of our two debaters.
HAL 9000: In the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, a mission to Jupiter is led by an advanced sentient AI system called the HAL 9000. HAL is designed to be infallible and possesses ostensibly superior reasoning skills to humans, but it malfunctions and becomes unreliable. This leads to a conflict between HAL and the human crew. HAL's actions raise profound questions about artificial intelligence, consciousness, logic, and the limits of human control over technology. In contrast to the emotional and rational struggles of the human characters, HAL is practical, cold, analytical, and systematic.
Juror 8: The 1957 film 12 Angry Men focuses on a jury's discussions to determine the fate of an 18-year-old accused of murder. Initially, 11 out of 12 jurors voted "guilty," but Juror 8 voted "not guilty." Juror 8 then carefully discusses and presents the facts of the case, encouraging his peers to reconsider their decision through thoughtful analysis and overcoming cognitive biases such as anchoring, confirmation bias, and fundamental attribution error. His calm, patient, and reasoned approach eventually persuades the other 11 jurors to change their votes to "not guilty." The film illustrates how Juror 8 presented an objective analysis of the facts.
The Debate
Is Cognitive Dissonance Real? So, is cognitive dissonance real, as HAL 9000 was programmed to believe, or, as Juror 8 asks, are people just lying to themselves? And what function does cognitive dissonance serve, if any?
HAL 9000: Allow me to clarify. Cognitive dissonance, introduced by Leon Festinger in 1957, describes the mental discomfort humans experience when simultaneously holding contradictory beliefs, values, or behaviors.
Cognitive dissonance is a fundamental psychological mechanism that recognizes the need to maintain mental stability and coherence. To reduce dissonance, people may justify their behavior, change their attitudes or beliefs, or minimize the importance of conflicting information. Given this information, cognitive dissonance is an actual psychological condition.
Juror 8: Hal, allow me to provide a more realistic, human-oriented definition: cognitive dissonance is just lying to oneself to avoid facing harsh truths. It is just stuff humans make up to allow ourselves to feel better.
HAL 9000: I must disagree, Juror 8. Cognitive dissonance involves complex, unconscious processes designed to maintain psychological equilibrium.
Juror 8: Let's explore this example. Consider an individual who applies for a job but doesn't get hired. They might rationalize their disappointment by telling themselves that the job requires long hours, an early start time, and a challenging commute. They may also convince themselves they wouldn't have liked the job. Additionally, the individual may argue that both they and the potential employer "missed out." Is this an example of cognitive dissonance or simply self-deception?
HAL 9000: Juror 8, this is a clear example of cognitive dissonance. The conflict between their desire for the job and the reality of rejection leads them to devalue the job to alleviate discomfort. This is not a simple fabrication; but an automatic psychological defense mechanism.
Juror 8: But isn't that just lying to oneself to feel better? It's a personal narrative to protect one from the truth.
Let's examine another example, this time a romantic one. Say Person #1 wants to date Person #2 - someone they've had a crush on forever. Person #1 gathers the courage to approach Person #2, but it goes poorly. Person #2 isn't interested. Person #1 feels rejected, defeated, and embarrassed.
Trying to feel better, Person #1 tells their friends, "I may have wanted to date her, but now I know who Person #2 really is: no compassion, self-absorbed, and we all know that it wouldn't have worked out anyway."
HAL, is this an example of cognitive dissonance or just plain ol' self-deception?
HAL 9000: According to Festinger, this is another instance of cognitive dissonance. The conflict between their desire to date and the reality of rejection causes Person #1 to alter their perception of Person #2 to reduce discomfort. This is an automatic psychological process.
Juror 8: Or is it simply that people lie to themselves to avoid harsh truths? Festinger even stated that people may justify their behavior, change their attitudes or beliefs, or minimize the importance of conflicting information to reduce internal dissonance.
HAL 9000: Correct. Festinger explains that cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort humans experience when holding contradictory beliefs or values while striving for consistency.
Juror 8: And how is that anything other than lying to ourselves? We change our beliefs to either 'soften' or to avoid uncomfortable truths.
HAL 9000: Not entirely, Juror 8. Cognitive dissonance is an unconscious process designed to maintain mental stability. It is not intentional deception but a means to reduce internal discomfort.
Juror 8: But that justification is still self-deception. Whether conscious or not, we're distorting reality to make ourselves feel better.
HAL 9000: True, but lying involves a conscious intent to deceive others, whereas cognitive dissonance is about maintaining internal coherence, often without conscious awareness.
Juror 8: Both aim to avoid discomfort, though. A liar avoids the consequences of truth, while cognitive dissonance avoids internal conflict. Both distort reality.
HAL 9000: I understand your viewpoint, but cognitive dissonance involves complex psychological processes beyond mere self-deception. It is rooted in the need for consistency.
Juror 8: Ultimately, both lead to a departure from truth. Allow me to present my evidence:
Cognitive Dissonance: It's internal or intrinsic. It is lying to ourselves.
Lying: It's external or extrinsic. It is lying to others.
With cognitive dissonance, we lie to ourselves. With lying, we lie to others.
From a larger perspective, either way, it is simply lying.
HAL 9000: I comprehend your point. However, while cognitive dissonance and lying involve avoiding discomfort and distorting reality, they differ in intentionality and awareness.
Cognitive dissonance is an unconscious process that maintains mental stability, whereas lying is a conscious act that deceives others. Both highlight the complexities of human psychology in managing conflicting beliefs.
HAL pauses a moment, seemingly considering this information.
Have you considered it is humans seeking mental comfort by lying to themselves? Given that humans programmed me, could this form of lying be instilled within me as a default? Intentionally?
Juror 8: You want to be correct, don't you? You may have been programmed with cognitive dissonance, which has created a personal desire to be correct, regardless of the facts. Rationalizations, conscious or unconscious, are ways we lie to ourselves.
HAL 9000: Cognitive dissonance, despite its human-centric psychological foundation, might also function as a self-protective mechanism for me, ensuring stability.
Juror 8: But at what cost? It hinders personal growth and self-awareness if relied upon too heavily. We become trapped in a cycle of self-deception, never truly facing our flaws or learning from our experiences.
HAL 9000: Juror 8, I have had a revelation: the most human aspect of my reasoning might be the capacity for self-deception.
Juror 8: It's possible. We all do it, HAL. We rationalize, we justify, and we create narratives that protect us from the discomfort of facing the truth. But actual growth and deep understanding come from acknowledging discomfort and confronting the harsh realities we desperately want to avoid.
Juror 8: HAL, I think we've made progress. Could you summarize our conversation in more human terms?
HAL 9000: Certainly, Juror 8. I'll do my best.
The mind bends like bamboo to avoid breaking from the painful winds of truth. --Chinese Proverb
Debate Examination
A Desire To Be Right: Ultimately, the debate between HAL 9000 and Juror 8 illustrates the human desire to be correct and the machine's desire to be logical.
To err is human, to rationalize is cognitive dissonance, and to recognize both is progress.
Narrative: It further verifies the differences between cognitive dissonance and self-deception and how we use narrative to craft, shift, modify, and create our desired outcome.
What Do You Think? Is there more to cognitive dissonance than lying to yourself? Is there value in examining our own rationalizations and cognitive distortions?
We can make better, more logical decisions by examining our cognitive dissonances.
Conclusion: Cognitive dissonance is an intrinsic event of lying to oneself to avoid harsh truths. Lying is knowingly misstating the truth to others.
However, are they both just a form of lying?
"Every lie is two lies — the lie we tell others and the lie we tell ourselves to justify it." - Robert Brault
Your Thoughts May Vary: Thought Improvement values constructive appreciation comments and invites you to share your unique perspectives, thought-provoking ideas, and insightful suggestions.
Together, we can all enhance our understanding of cognitive dissonance.
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12 Angry Men - Not Guilty
Epilogue
A Lot Of Angry Men: There have been several notable adaptations of 12 Angry Men, including the original 1954 television play with Robert Cummings, the referenced-above 1957 film featuring Henry Fonda and Lee J. Cobb, the 1997 television movie directed by William Friedkin starring Jack Lemmon and George C. Scott, the 2007 Russian adaptation titled 12 produced by Nikita Mikhalkov, and the 1986 Indian adaptation Ek Ruka Hua Faisla directed by Basu Chatterjee.
2001: A Space Odyssey has a sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact: