Just finished reading a fantastic book, "Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me," by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson. It's the kind of work that makes you think about hard things, in a good way.
What stayed with me was how slavishly we work, as humans, to convince ourselves that what we want to see is indeed what we see.
Cognitive dissonance is one of the most difficult distortions for us to let go of. As Tavris and Aronson show through a series of convincing studies, we go to great lengths to bend our perceptions in accordance to our desires and our decisions.
I have been writing about the damage that this kind of thinking can do to the soul over time.
I love this line from their book: "The mind wants to protect itself from the pain of dissonance with the balm of self justification; but the soul wants to confess."
They also mention how few of us are willing to stand up and say "I made a big mistake." That makes those who do all the more worth of admiration. As the authors explain, "And if you can admit a mistake when it is the size of an acorn, it is easier to repair that when it has become the size of a tree, with deep, wide-ranging roots."
I want to plant new trees in my garden, ones that will grow long and good roots.
This is so true, and is exactly what I fear for next years' election. I've come across a study that may even be mentioned in this book. We all choose what facts we let in to justify our decisions and beliefs, let's say to be a Democrat or Rep. rather than seek the truth. Scary,
ReplyDeleteIsn't this (ie cognitive dissonance) what we might also call 'being in denial?' I think more than a few of us could relate... Good piece!
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