worldview and perspective on Cognitive Dissonance

Dissonance theory predicts that we will eventually (and conveniently) forget good arguments made by opponents just as we forget silly arguments we made ourselves. . . . It’s motivated by our need to b...

Contradiction, paradox, the tension of opposites: these have always been at the heart of my experience, and I think I am not alone. I am tugged one way and then the other. My beliefs and my actions of...

We will often stop at nothing to avoid cognitive dissonance. We will twist logic, bend reason, conveniently forget facts, invent new stories, even destroy relationships—all in the name of preserving o...

Karyn L. Freedman points out that one of the serious effects of trauma is “the shattered worldview.” After a traumatic experience, the survivor experiences cognitive dissonance as a whole new set of b...

“It’s not denial. I’m just selective about the reality I accept.

It is always easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.

I remember a young man coming to see me when he had just left school and begun work in London. He had given up going to church, he said, because he could not say the creed without feeling that he was ...

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

We are not very good at recognizing illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves.

We have all had the experience of finding that our reactions and perhaps even our deeds have denied beliefs we thought were ours.

Reality is what doesn’t go away when you stop believing in it.

And so, like runaway slaves, we either flee our own reality or manufacture a false self which is mostly admirable, mildly prepossessing, and superficially happy. We hide what we know or feel ourselves...

The more complicated the landscape, the more the wanderer relies on patience. The more confusing the scene, the more tolerant his outlook becomes. He not only has an awareness of his own ignorance, bu...

It is often said that second thoughts are best. So they are in matters of judgment but not in matters of conscience.

In this post-truth world, any marketing BS seems tolerable.

Moralistic behavior change done for one's self simply manipulates and leverages radical selfishness without challenging it.

Many times men criticize us when we actually are following the Lord. Outside praise or criticism is inconsequential; but the testimony of our quickened conscience is momentous.

Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor.

My experience is what I agree to attend to.

Our propensity to deceive ourselves about our place and purpose makes it so very difficult to see the truth of our lives, to understand the meaning of our moment in history and our responsibility to i...

Before God can deliver us we must undeceive ourselves.

One of the most enduring lessons of social psychology is that behavior change often precedes changes in attitude and feelings.

When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. I am...

“I know” seems to describe a state of affairs which guarantees what is known, guarantees it as a fact. One always forgets the expression, “I thought I knew.

Everybody believes that their reality is the real real reality.

We are easily deceived about government because we are inclined to accept the following fallacies: (a) Anything legal is also moral. (b) We are not individually responsible for government action. (c) ...

Shame has two conflicting instincts. It needs to isolate and hide, and it needs a community in which to be transparent. Hiding, of course, usually wins. It is the easier and more natural of the two. B...

Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident they are acting on their own free will.

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).

A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.