What Is Cognitive Dissonance?

5min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

Cognitive dissonance is the uncomfortable feeling we have when two ideas clash with each other, conflict with each other. It's a simple mechanism, but it's developed over the decades into a really rich theory of understanding why it is that when you tell somebody in a kind and warm and friendly way, here's some information that shows why you're wrong, they rarely thank you. The whole b in our text book, carollwade, that carrolwade and i did, for so many years, actually propose chocolate immersion therapy as probably the most beneficial thing.

For the first full episode of Mindscape, it's an honor to welcome social psychologist Carol Tavris. Her book with co-author Eliot Aronson, Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me), explores the effect that cognitive dissonance has on how we think. We talk about the fascinating process by which people justify the mistakes that they make, and how that leads to everything from false memories to political polarization. [smart_track_player url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/seancarroll/carol-tavris.mp3" social_email="true" hashtag="mindscapepodcast" ] Carol Tavris received her Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Michigan. She is the author of numerous books, covering topics such as gender, biology, and emotion, and is a frequent contributor to a variety of newspapers and magazines. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Carol Tavris on Wikipedia Social Psychology Network profile Amazon.com author page A lecture on "Dissent and Dissonance: The Science and Art of Argument." Download Episode See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.