Definition: When we behave inconsistently with our beliefs we experience a negative state called cognitive dissonance.
Insight: We often feel the need to justify our actions, even when they conflict with our knowledge and beliefs.
Insight: We can experience dissonance when our actions are not reflected by rewards or coercion. Can often justify our actions, to ourselves or others, to reduce dissonance.
Reference: Leon Festinger: 1959 experiment - asking participants to complete a task in which they are paid $0, $1, or $20. The study showed that those paid $1 rated the experience as more enjoyable and felt a sense of importance, even than those paid $20. They created a story that justified to themselves why they were happy to do the tasks, even when they knew it was for a relatively small amount.
Example: Switch the contents of Pepsi and Coke cans, and people will stick with the brand they prefer, despite the flavour.
Insight: Once we make up our mind about what is right, we ignore contrary information for as long as we can.
Insight: Cognitive dissonance creates biases that marketers can exploit to their advantage.
Insight: Repeat a story to yourself and its easy to accept things as absolute truths.
Insight: We act or do not act in certain ways over time because of the mental picture we build about who we are as a person: there is internal pressure to maintain self-image and behave according to beliefs.
Insight: Cultural beliefs (group identity) and self image (personal identify) can be comforting to uphold, even if they are wrong.
Insight: A huge barrier to positive change is identity conflict: "its not who I am".
Insight: There is often a huge gap between who people are and how they act.
Insight: People often cannot accept their own success and status.
Principle: Pursue what is right for you, not for someone else.
Insight: Research shows that the human brain is resistant to changing patterns.
Insight: The human brain can change after repeated exposure to contrasting information or patterns.
Example: Religious views. The increasing cognitive dissonance for Catholics between the realities of multicultural societies and religious teachings.
Insight: It can often be easier to continue down an irrational path than stop, as it is easy to create rationalising stories.
Reference: Aesop: Fox and sour grapes.
Reference: Leon Festinger: 1959 experiment - asking participants to complete a task in which they are paid $0, $1, or $20. The study showed that those paid $1 rated the experience as more enjoyable and felt a sense of importance, even than those paid $20. They created a story that justified to themselves why they were happy to do the tasks, even when they knew it was for a relatively small amount.
Reference: La Fontaine: Le Renard et les Raisins - repacked the fox and sour grapes.
Insight: Effort justification is a case of cognitive dissonance.
Reference: Aesop's fable The Fox and the Grapes. When the fox tried and tried to reach the grapes and failed he said "These aren't even ripe yet. Why would I want sour grapes?". The Fox set out to do something and failed, and chose to resolve this cognitive dissonance by reinterpreting the situation.
Insight: When people are first confronted with information that challenges their existing beliefs, it can make them even more committed to those beliefs, even if they are wrong.
Insight: Belief systems can change by generation.
Insight: People have a difficult time seeing themselves in a positive way - we tend to focus on the negative.
Principle: Adopt positive affirmations.
Insight: "What you see [about yourself] is what you will be"
Insight: Cognitive dissonance occurs whenever new messaging/information clashes with old perceptions.
Principle: Adopt positive affirmations, and repeat continuously.
Reference: Festinger 1957 cognitive dissonance theory: we are uncomfortable with our inconsistencies, and take steps to reduce them, even if it means fooling ourselves by telling ourselves irrational stories.
Definition: "The tendency of your mind to change your beliefs to fit your actions".
Example: The Good Samaritan story: A man is badly beaten in the streets - a priest and Levite pass the man without helping - a third 'Good Samaritan' stops to offer aid. "Jesus seems to imply that stopping to help is all about some internal, identity-related promoting pressure: what makes the third man stop is mercy and love for a stranger, core values that embody how Jesus wants his followers to approach the world."
Insight: When you set goals your brain starts to identify the gaps between where you are currently and those goals and resolve the "cognitive dissonance" by trying to fill in the gaps.
Definition: "The mental discomfort caused by holding incompatible beliefs."
Insight: We eliminate dissonance through rationalisation.
Example: Study conducted by Wiseman about individuals being paid differing amounts to pick up trash in a park, in which those paid less gave more positive reviews of their experience.
Example: Individual perception about body image.
Key Insights & Principles
Personal Growth
There is often a gap between what people believe and how they act.
We often feel the need to justify our actions, even if they conflict with our ideas of beliefs.
Once we make our mind up about what is 'right', we ignore contrary information for a long as possible.
When we are first confronted with information that is contrary to our beliefs, it can make us more resolute or tied to those beliefs, even when we are wrong.
There is internal pressure to maintain an image of who we are.
When we set goals, our brain starts to identify gaps between where we are and those goals, and resolve this cognitive dissonance by trying to fill in the gaps.
We often struggle to accept our own success and status.
The human brain can change after repeated exposure to information or inputs (habits).
It can often be easier to continue down an irrational path than stop. We often do this by creating rationalising stories.
Do what is right for you, not for anyone else.
Adopt positive affirmations, and repeat regularly.
Review values, and adopt clear principles that align with those values.
