Tolerating some amount of cognitive dissonance is one of the best things that I was able to develop in myself recently. In coding for example, I used to suffer mental anguish over seeing inconsistencies in codebases I'm working on and have an OCD-like drive to fix them. Learning to live with those consistencies freed me up to work on what actually matters.<p>Furthermore the unforgiving drive for consistency is a reason why people don't update their beliefs when new evidence comes to light. Consider Superforcasting[1] (a book about people with an unusual ability in forcasting the future) the author says that one common trait among superforcasters is that they have a larger capacity for tolerating cognitive dissonance. The drive to avoid cognitive dissonance shackles you to your existing beliefs (see confirmation bias).<p>[1]: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Superforecasting-Science-Prediction-Philip-Tetlock/dp/0804136696" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Superforecasting-Science-Prediction-Ph...</a>
Sadly enough, cognitive dissonance is also one of the coping mechanisms that keeps people captured in a cult. I've been raised in a high control religion/cult. I've been out now for a while, but I was in for 24 years. The cognitive dissonance was very high at times, and I'm not the only one [1]. Looking back at it, I almost can't believe it took soo long to realize consciously what was happening to me.<p>It's a weird thing, alarm bells going off everywhere in your head, but you still tell yourself: It's alright, I'm ok this is what I have to do, it's the best life choice, it's not that bad, everyone else is wrong, ...<p>For me personally, the subconscious reason why I acted that way is that I knew the repercussions when I would try to leave. My whole family, friends, everyone I cared for would start shunning me. I would've been kicked out of my the house by my parents, completely on my own, no contact at all. That's a scary though when you've been thought the world is a wicked and evil place. This year, the group has even become more aggressive when it comes down to shunning, showing emotional propaganda videos on their conventions [2].<p>[1] <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/search?q=cognitive+dissonance&restrict_sr=on" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/exjw/search?q=cognitive+dissonance&...</a><p>[2] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxDAY5lVwuI" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxDAY5lVwuI</a>
I strive to have one idea in my head, because having one idea feels like being on a motor-way and visiting one of many ideas feels like being on a small road. When I'm coding in a new domain or field I am sometimes flooded with options and I reach cognitive dissonance and my pace takes a halt, for minutes, hours, sometimes months, because of this dissonance, until one idea has become more like a high-way an the journey proceeds. I feel that because I'm a programmer I have to deal with and have achieved a quite healthy approach to what is cognitive dissonance, a state that outside of work sometimes makes me feel a bit schizofrenic.
A strikingly shallow and pointless article. TL:DR; We did some trivial, questionable, narrow tests, and turns out cognitive dissonance is what you thought it was and can be thought of as OK / survival instinct.
See also <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublethink" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublethink</a>
As far as I know the actual cognitive dissonance involves ideas, beliefs or values. Note that these three categories do not belong to the same class. Beliefs and values involve an emotional component, along with wishes, desires and all actions carried out for any sort of emotional gratification whereas ideas do not. It is clear that we can hold contradictory ideas in our mind. There can be no progress without that ability.
Holding contradictory emotional states is very different however. It is akin to the ability to tolerate ambivalence, of which it is a general expression. This can drive some people crazy (literally). The authors seem to wave at the insula (the emotional component in that instance) to focus on the cognitive, executive component, thus not really localizing dissonance but rather the areas involved in the brain’s efforts at neutralizing it. A sort of homeostatic mechanism unknown to Vulcans...
This is very interesting research. In my opinion, consistency is very important in politics because, while consistency doesn't guarantee correctness, it does place some bounds on what can be true. Often smart people go to extremes in politics because they are able to see more clearly the inconsistencies in the mainstream political parties or ideologies. But being extreme usually just means being consistently wrong, which is not very helpful either.
Cognitive Dissonance seems like a mechanism to moderate rate of change, plus a weak form of "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence".<p>If you have strong beliefs (regardless of how you got them) it takes repeated exposure to contrary evidence over time to change those beliefs.
Does someone really believe that cognitive dissonance is a bad thing, as the article suggests at the end? I've just always imagined that feeling bad for poor decisions is how you learn not to do poor decisions.
the cost to pay at the end of the road is exorbitant. with this in mind, would anyone like to commit to a culture of holding fast to 'wrong and strong'? show me where i am wrong and may you be rewarded. people compete to build the best tools. fix the solution before the solution fixes you. prepare the answer before you are prepared by the answer. the task is great. you may describe the problem in any language you wish, veneered depravity is worse than dealing with what it is.
Given the volume of knowable information vs potentially possible information, cognitive dissonance is probably when you're paying the best attention to the actual world.