Why It's So Hard to Admit You're Wrong | Cognitive Dissonance
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ค. 2024
- Sometimes our behavior and our beliefs just… don’t match. And a lot of times this mismatch can lead to stress. What’s happening in our brains when we’re inconsistent? Can we learn anything from this discomfort?
Hosted by: Hank Green
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Fortunately, I'm wrong all the time, so I've grown accustomed to it.
Same
You're wrong about that.
@@MultiPaulinator wait..what?
I too, am in love.
Then when you’re right, that’s when you’ll experience the cognitive dissonance
This should be on the warning label of the internet. !! Cognitive Dissonance may occur !!
Should also be discussed more heavily in politics too, since a very VERY large amount of people are guilty of it.
That exists on a lot of Trump's tweets, lol
SciShow, one of the few beacons of sanity amidst disinformation, delusion, and chaos.
Yea except when they propagate misinformation about the very topic the channel is about. No psychological test can evaluate "implicit racism" to any satisfying level. The popular test that exist is so unreliable some of the authors warn against using it for that purpose.
ikr . thankfully we have nerds. now if we could just get people to listen to them more.
@@captzulu1764 now to be fair, satisfying is subjective. I’ve taken a few of those tests and was surprised to see prejudice I held and it definitely gave me cognitive dissonance, but I totally see your point in saying that those tests aren’t sufficient as is
@@smileyguy433 The problem with most of those tests is that they make the same mistake as people who claim we're more our 'true selves' when drunk, since we lose a lot of our inhibitions. But that's just silly - your inhibitions are absolutely part of who you are. Similarly, what those tests tend to measure are our unconscious, split-second associations. But we neither act nor think like that, except maybe as infants. We have control mechanisms in our conscious processing that modulate those tendencies (and many many others, such as gluttony or greed) that are similarly absolutely part of who we are as people.
@@ArawnOfAnnwn Well I think we are now going into what is really a communication problem. Because those people that say we are more true to ourselves when drunk might actually mean we are better at being true to our desires by chasing what we really want by not having inhibitions. And to be fair I think most people would interpret 'true selves' like that even though it might be incorrect
This needs to be taught in high school
what's taught in high school is the majority of the problem, in my experience
@@gearandalthefirst7027 huh??
It needs to be taught as a chapter in Internet Literacy class.
@@gearandalthefirst7027 Taught only to survive in the "job market"
I think highschool is too late. Primary for sure, if not earlier. I think people should need to do a course involving basic human psychology like this in order to be allowed to raise children. Learning new info that will benefit your kids like this in order to pass it on is a fundamental responsibility that people aught to perform voluntarily, and if not, let someone responsible raise the small human instead, or make them migrate to a country where gross negligence is condoned.
"The frist step to defeating your own brain, is knowing what its up to." As someone with mental health struggles that is a MOOD.
Right? I feel like it shouldn't be too hard to keep track of what your own brain is up to, but like.. I'm constantly surprised at myself.
What REALLY sucks is when we reach out for help, and receive misdiagnoses,(which I was for almost 20 yrs) inconsistent or very questionable care, sometimes bordering on complete incompetence😣😥 Especially if you're lower income, Medicaid, going to the local public health clinic, being someone who likely needs the BEST care possible, and receiving the crappiest
@@semaj_5022 My experience is that it gets easier with regular and systematic practice. It seems to be like any other skill. Like how knowing how to use a computer for common things is not on the same level as knowing how it works. Plus brains are more complex and more enigmatic than computers. Plus using an object (your brain) to surveil and troubleshoot the very same object is fated to be tricky.
Yep. I'm one of those people.
I have suffered from anxiety when my brain was literally over stimulated due to aspergers, adhd and odd and ocd and ptsd and multiple personality disorder. Its a handful but now I'm 20 I can tell after 4 years of self therapy and building up who I want to be instead of people expecting me to be someone else. I quit taking adhd tablets as they were addicting to me as when I took them people were happy , they didn't know I was depressed on these tablets and they said its normal. No it isn't.
So at age 16 , I just chucked them away, yes I should've weened off them but in the end the only withdrawal was insomnia. And that made me anxiety worse. I am now in control and I am happy. Even though I still have depression I don't let it take over me.
@@lisaadams8004 does cognitive dissonance and ocd get worse because of Aspergers?
Yeah it really sucks when very important people can’t realize they’re wrong
Is there any Important person that comes to mind ? Someone that can't accept a certain fact. :D
@@MrManultra Not to name names, but tell me said person doesn't look like an oompa loompa...
@@MrManultra Nancy Pelosi, she thinks that Democrats win because they are conservative
Edit: Noteworthy though is the fact we could apply this to literally any American politician and realize they won't ever actually change anything for the better for all, just for the rich
Like climatologists?
Yeah I think it would be nice if they admitted their mistakes too.
@@VariantAEC ... Are you really trying to do this? In the comments section of a science channel?
"I'll admit, you're right." the pain in the ass to do that sometimes is awful, specially that one time the person who's always wrong and never admits is right for once, and you have to accept it to not be the same
This is how I know I'm broken. I get excited when someone proves me wrong a little more than half the time. I love learning.
You only need to admit to yourself that you are wrong. If the other person is an ass you do not need to tell them that they got this time right. You just keep quiet. Admiring that you are wrong is a good thing with people that are nice or neutral to you. Dumb people will always think that they are right. You do not need to encourage this behaviour.
@@sthelenskungfu Which is why I still do it anyway, in the end, the truth is always more interesting to me than to stay in the dopamine high ground for a short time, if you're broken, I'd love everyone, including me, to be broken too
@@afeathereddinosaur It has its downside. I've been accused of arguing just for arguments' sake.
Friend: “Why are you so argumentative?”
Me: “What do you mean?”
Friend: “Every time I see you talking to someone, it turns into an argument.”
Me: “Why do you automatically assume it’s me?”
Friend: “Well the other people aren’t arguing with anyone else.”
Me: “What does that prove?”
Friend: “I don’t know.”
Me: “I mean, for example, you just came here and accused me off being argumentative.”
Friend: “I guess you’re right.”
Me: “It seems to me that you’re the one being argumentative.”
Friend: “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
Me: “Although you do have a good point that I am in a lot of arguments. You might have been onto something.”
Friend: “Did you just change sides as soon as I agreed with you just to keep the argument going?”
@@sthelenskungfu That is why I started to try and ask people straight up about things as of recently. Most of the times I get overwhelmed or ignored, people either think I'm a troll or vent something deep within(I think)
A good example of this is wanting to distance yourself from toxicity and not realizing that you yourself can be toxic too sometimes. You can hate a trait that others have and never realize you have it too. On the other hand if you look out for it you can hold yourself to the same standard you hold of everyone else
I worry I have already done this with my parents. I found out that they hold beliefs and ideas that I find deeply troubling, and became angry when they refused to see things my way (and became rather condescending towards me as well). I know I used toxic tactics to try and hurt them after that. I wanted them to feel how I felt.
I took a year when I was 22 and made it my goal to change my opinion on something every day. This had to be a hard won change. I had to actually learn something that actually changed my understanding of the facts, not just a simple, "You know what, I've decided French isn't a horrible language." Ever since then, I've actually liked when someone can use facts and nuance to change my opinion.
As someone fluent in them, French and Asian French (Chinese dialects) are in fact the worst languages in the world.
Not hard to learn necessarily or anything, they just both sound ironically terrible considering they're a major basis for every other language nearby.
OK, French sounds lovely and I'm sure that speaking it is healthier for one's facial musculature. But, how can a language managed by a committee of academics be anything but terrible?
French pronounciation is so bad it might as well switch to Chinese characters (/s, probably - I have never learned near any amount of French I just heard it's bad and I think Chinese characters are kinda neat)
I did something similar when I was 22! Except I continue it to this day. I made it my personal mission to learn something new every single day. It doesn't have to be anything important, but since so much of the world is linked, it often is. That alone has helped me rethink my own entrenched beliefs time and time again.
What have been some of the things that you used to believe and were changed through that year?
My cognitive dissonance: I don't like the idea of animals suffering but I eat more than my fair share of meat and cheese.
Focus on the ethically raised part. We don't need to treat animals like meat machines to eat them. Give them a life where they can take care of themselves and just have food available, growing naturally in the landscape if possible. This is how permaculture does meat production. Take care of the animal that takes care of you, ya know?
If they didn't want to be eaten, they wouldn't taste so good. Really, it's their choice you're just honoring it.
I just don't care, and neither would a tiger (I don't know why I used this) if it saw me as food
In fairness, I'm sure synthetic stuff is going to come a long way in the next 30~50 years. The bar for what is "cruelty-free" is bound to only ever go up! Personally, I can't wait.
To be fair, a clean shot with a boltgun is way better than being ripped apart by wolves.
I've noticed lately, that's been easier for me to accept that I'm wrong
@0 0 It has too! And I refuse to accept otherwis- Oh you got me.
@0 0 Yeah it has
@@BitchChill Just remember to still make an effort to notice when you are wrong or else you might end up too confident, that you would always notice when you are wrong, that you don't
you're getting old
@@thebomber7641 I'm only 16
Social scientist putting on spy gear. "What're you doin-" "it's for science!!!"
'The first step to defeating your own brain... is knowing what it's up to.'
Hank, are you saying that knowing is half the battle?
There's an easy way to reduce the likelyhood of being wrong.
Be extremely careful with using absolute terms.
I. E., I think it's extremely unlikely that water flows up the hill, but I accept that there might be situations where it makes sense.
This allows you to cheat cognitive dissonance in a lot of situations.
This is also a good lesson to be a good storyteller
This is good advice but it can be corrupted. I'm the sort of person that generally wins arguments and that's due in part to how I'm almost always hedging my claims. For those who want to develop this habit, it's good to check yourself to see if a belief or argument has strong evidence, or is merely "winning" on some technical basis.
Also saying out loud "I could be wrong" is an effective tool to use.
@@lefleurdulmal pretty much every advice can be corrupted:).
But yeah. It doesn't come over well, but I didn't mean this as an advice on how to win arguments, but as a way of thinking. Be extremely careful with absolute terms. Just because something seems to always work a certain way doesn't mean it's always true if the fundamentals change.
I.e. Addition of velocities works well pretty much everytime, but once you get into magnitudes simular to the speed of light, all the sudden they don't simply add anymore.
But also in social situations, if you want to get somewhere you often need to make statements about other people. If you just assert that they're doing/thinking what you think they do think, that'll probably alienate them. But if you instead make a statement about what you think and what would result of this they can correct you. They may even choose to fall back on a bad decision they made in their thinking, which comes easier to them because you didn't push them into the corner but left an escape. This makes for a healthier atmosphere.
Just on the whole many intelligent people I see are to quick to assert the validity of patterns they see. They're usually the best thing to go off, but you should be aware of the possibility that it isn't true in the end.
Water flows up hill all the time. It's called tides.
"Think of things that are even worse and make your bad company look better by comparison." This idea might be overlooked but is extremely important. It's part of one of my favorite short, but deeply terrifying quotes, "People think they are right, most of the time. And they can justify anything to themselves." And this is one of the strongest ways people justify bad behavior: "Well, at least I'm not as bad as X," where X could literally be anything and can easily move further away depending on how close you get to it.
I really love playing devil's advocate, even (sometimes especially) with myself, thinking of several sides of an issue and putting myself in the shoes of people who think differently. On the other hand, this rarely causes me to really change my opinions on things, mostly it moderates them somewhat and tends to make me less aggressive in pushing for them, at least in politics (although some political lines of thought require so much mental gymnastics for me to wrap my head around that even when I understand that there are people who hold these beliefs, I have a really hard time sympathizing or understanding them). More academic subjects on the other hand...
Playing the devil's advocate is practically a reflex of mine. I think it's made me curious and more scientifically-minded--I question things and don't care when I'm wrong, because the point is to find the truth as scientists. I just wish my brain played devil's advocate for itself, like whenever anxiety decides to loudly voice its opinion (as it so frequently does).
You might enjoy the book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Johnathan Haidt
Don't try doing that in university these days. Your professors may or may not appreciate it, but the students on the other hand...
Apparently they've convinced themselves that 'devil's advocate' is always just an excuse people use to say unpopular stuff, and so vilify it just as they do everything else that doesn't agree with the prevailing orthodoxy.
Also, regarding "mostly it moderates them somewhat and tends to make me less aggressive in pushing for them" - for all the widespread ire and ridicule it tends to generate, one of the few good things about moral / cultural relativism is that it tends to be a vaccine against fanaticism. It's hard to be a fanatic when your beliefs aren't absolutist to begin with. We could all learn from that...
@@ArawnOfAnnwn Believe me, I know. I am a university student. Better still, I'm majoring in history, so politics is somewhat unavoidable. I've learned to keep my thoughts to myself by and large. You may note I was fairly nonspecific on my actual beliefs in my initial comment.
If you have trouble admitting you were wrong, try framing it differently. Shift the focus from having been wrong to learning something knew, that way someone who is correcting you is not attacking you and your believes, but teaching you to be better and less wrong in the future.
And remenber that learning doesn't stop when you are no longer in school, it stops when you are no longer alive. Until then you always have the potential to become smarter and better every day.
The best thing to remember is, everyone's a hypocrite.
the only good is that people accept it, and improve. Those who don't or admit are worst and should be not a part of civilized society. Just creating confusion and chaos,
This election has been a major lesson in this very thing
So true! When liberals are brainwashed by media, and then FACTS hit them in the face.
Every election is an example of this.
I actually respect liberalism and have some liberal views. It’s the leftist and progressives that I find have the most difficult time being logical and being almost impossible to reason with.
@@Nihilnovus I am right when it comes to economy, and libertarian when it comes to culture.
@@ivnehaas we in the same boat my sister. I’m very conservative myself so the less government in my life the better.
If only most people had the ability to analyze their thoughts and actions.
I think we have the ability, we simply decide not to.
@@sthelenskungfu I agree to a point but think there are a lot of people who actually lack the ability.
@@cornlips7247 Maybe. I think we will only find out for sure if that's actually true if we start assuming it's false and try teaching people to do it first. We may reach a point where we have identified people who cannot learn it, but if we start assuming that there are people who can't the natural course is to give up on those who don't get it right away. Sometimes I think that starting from a place of optimism in the absence of data is the most helpful.
This is where the last point he made kind of comes into play. As he said, sometimes people (I do this, too) are self aware of what's wrong but just ignore it still
why? im always right! /s
As social media chooses to show us what we want (because that's what keeps our attention), our beliefs are being constantly reinforced way more than before, and is making it ever harder to relate to those around us with different beliefs.
Being wrong is the key component to actually learning something. Hey, just because you know everything doesn't mean you learned anything.
If only people that could benefit the most from this actually watched.
My mother is currently mad at me because I'm not interested her conspiracy theories. I wish I could get her to watch this.
when I say such a thing like "defeating your brain", my friends are like "stop fighting with your brain!". Balancing inner inquiry (without overthinking) and letting things go is a great way of self improvement. :)
Like, say, if someone believed (despite a complete lack of evidence) that there was tons of voter fraud in an election when in fact they just didn't like the outcome of the election? (Totally random example.)
Haha, it always happens. The thing is, fake votes are most likely done by both sides, so it should even out. Im not American, but seeing how the election goes here where both sides accuse of each other I come to the conclusion that both probably have fake voters.
One of my classes in law school assigned us law suit fact patterns and divided us up to argue for or against. The patterns were deliberately designed so that there was no clear winner. But I found after drafting my brief arguing for my side, I really BELIEVED my side should win. But then we were assigned to argue the opposite side of the same fact pattern we had just done. Wouldn't you know it? My opinion changed and I really felt my new side should win. I found the phenomena really interesting at the time. But it may be I was experiencing the phenomena described in the video.
Realising is half the battle.
Admitting is another.
Sometimes you need a little push to realize and admit you're wrong. I corrected a worker at my job about some mistakes he made, but I was a little harsh. I wouldn't have considered or agreed that I was wrong, until after he saved a life. He successfully fought a bunch of brutal men, some of whom had knives. See, when I watched him fight the guys, it scared me because I was worried about if he would get kiIIed or seriously hurt. Prior to that moment, I had kinda gotten in his face at work for touching crew members. _Casual_ touches, like on arms or shoulders. He was always very outgoing and tactile at work. Still, I'd taken him to my colleague’s office for a chat and told him he shouldn't touch anyone without consent. Just handshakes. I said we needed the workers to be comfortable in a good work environment, that he pretty much shouldn't talk about anything other than work and school. How he shouldn't tell his stories because they may be inappropriate or upsetting (can't remember my words) to the other workers; funny to him only. I think he’s about 25, give or take. He seemed pretty quiet and uncomfortable during my speech. Answered a question or two with a nod and headshake. I even said to my present colleague "Is there anything you want to add?" I didn't realize how insensitive I was that day. Now, I was right in some ways, and I was right to talk to him so he would do better, but I was disrespectful too. He did not deserve the way I shamed him in front of his boss. He made some mistakes, but I didn't handle it right. I don't even think they were as bad as I made them out to be. I should've been more respectful and patient. His risking his life made me realize this. If it weren't for that, I would've thought "I didn't do anything. Realistically, I was right." Well, right and technicalities don't matter as much as humanity, even if the person was wrong. I understand that now.
I wish more people watched this video. I wish I could show my parents this video. I know that those who think themselves infallible would NEVER watch this video because it's tantamount to admitting your wrong in the first place. I know I'm biased, and I know that I am wrong even when I refuse to admit it, and I know that there are people who are itching to jump onto me for being all like "why won't everybody else watch this and realize that THEY are wrong (and not me)", but I am not doing that. I think that an openness to being wrong is an important pillar of scientific reasoning, and I try to be okay with it. The thing is, there will be a sort of "volunteer bias" here, where people won't watch this thinking about why THEY are wrong, but only thinking "Why won't this person I disagree with just accept they've been wrong all along?". Still, those that watched this video, even thinking about why others than themselves are wrong and stubborn, are a certain kind of person, and those that I believe would really benefit the most from hearing about bias and psychological/sense&perceptual gimmicks and quirks that lead us to being wrong even when we are ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE that we aren't are the people who would never even dare watch a video like this because they're already too far gone.
I spend a lot of time thinking about times I've experienced cognitive dissonance and I wish other people did too.
I like the location of his shirt buttons that makes it looks like X’s
THE SUBTLE HINT AT A FLAT EARTH at the beginning LOL
Hey!! I’m learning about this in my stress management class!
@@sentientfetus3894 wtf does this have to do anything with my comment??
This channel has taught me a lot about psychology. Thank you to all those working behind it 🙏
Yeah, that word "evidence" is doing the heavy lifting in this segment.
Thank you for covering this subject!
Actually, I think that it's because I'm always right but you're free to your own opinion.
Thank you so much for uploading this video. It is helping me get through the pandemic!
I seem to have developed a habit of triggering cognitive dissonance and working through it via a life of obsessing about my own actions and lack of control of my emotions and fear of being biased. It's so.. validating to see the lessons I learned mirrored in this.
Never identify with your beliefs. Never. It will make it nearly impossible to give them up, and since you can so often and so easily be unable to tell when a belief is false.. that's dangerous.
For awhile now, I've felt that the stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance) deals with trying to process truths in general. This is especially true when beliefs don't align with reality.
The solutions sound like something I've had in some form for a while. I dislike how my pride can make a fool of me, and I don't have as stable a basis for my thoughts as I like to think. If I weren't so damn lazy, I'd be on top of this.
I feel like this is what has happened with me as a huge Michael Jackson fan growing up and now being 26 years old and discovering/uncovering facts that I would not have imagined to be true before
I see this on facebook all the time. Person reveals some basic truth or genuine research on unnamed politician, and people respond with vague childish arguments such as "stop hating," or reach for desperate counter arguments that have little to do with what was originally argued. This is all pride to me, and the biggest reason why the world is in such a state that it's in. Nobody can admit their faults in a world that is constantly telling them they're beautiful and worthy and special.
All this is why its important to PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR IMPULSES. Train your mind to react to stimulus in a particular way and it will be what you do on impulse when you receive that stimulus.
Also a reminder that avoiding awful, abusive internet randos isn't so much "selective exposure" as it is just having common sense. Doesn't matter how often you hear arguments in favor of, say, xenophobia, it's not gonna change your opinion, really. You wouldn't put your hand on a hot stove every week just to make sure it still burns.
That's an interesting take. At the moment, I'm very much an open-borders kind of person. (Okay, global pandemic complicates that, but in general...) For me, this is based on the facts and figures I've been exposed to. If those facts and figures were demonstrated to be inaccurate or to ignore other overwhelming facts and figures, I would change. For me, I would rather conform to the better data than prove how stuck in my ways I am. And I'm never sure where that unknown data point is going to come from. (Because, you know, I don't know what I don't know.)
@@sthelenskungfu I mean, if you can handle that sort of internet experience, sure, especially if you're curating your sources very thoroughly. It can be very exaustive for some people, though, specially when their social rights and ability to self-determinate are the things being put into question. One's own sanity should come first whenever possible, I think.
Open borders means No Nation. If one were to try open boarders with their immune system and see how much cancer one can acquire, I don't think anyone would volunteer.
No, but you might make a better analogy. Like quickly touching it to see how hot it is or isn't. You're acting like everything is extremes in your analogy so it's terrible and... Wrong.
Especially since a term like xenophobia is loaded and subjective unlike "hot stove" which is by definition a certain thing.
@@VeracityTrigger I'd be all for open borders on my immune system if most of the microbes that moved in started providing for the betterment of my body. I'd love to have some algae move into my skin and start sharing their photosynthesis and reduce the amount I need to eat. Similar concepts apply to open borders. Except that it turns out people are already a social people, and most people are eager to support their new homes and communities when they arrive. So if they're willing to show up and contribute to the workforce so that we as a culture can either work less or produce more I'm down with that. If we're going to kick out those that don't contribute, I don't think that decision should be based on where they started their life.
Call forwarding is awesome.
Admitting you are wrong is always difficult. But once you do, it’s important to takes steps to correct your mistakes.
Gee, I wonder why this was made this particular week lol.
I have found in the past that being prepared to admit when you're wrong is extremely useful. It's not pleasant at all when it happens, but it's sooooooo much better not very long afterward. Incremental improvements with the occasional slap in the face.
Wow! There are so many people I want to see this!
It's not at all hard to admit I'm wrong. Which is what makes it so frustrating when people try to pretend they aren't.
And even worse when they'll admit to being wrong like 10 hours later but absolutely refused to when you were actually talking about it.
This show really hit home. I became a Jehovah's Witness many years ago. As I was studying the bible with a couple we came upon the JW teaching that it was wrong to accept a blood transfusion. I had been donating blood and felt it was life saving. I read all the scriptures and all the literature they had on the subject and told them "I've read all this and I just don't see it this way" In reply one of them said "Just put that on the shelf for now and god will explain it later." So I did that. In hindsight that wasn't reasonable. I don't believe we evolved to be reasonable in all situations. Twenty eight years later I was sitting at my dining room table thinking about things when all of the sudden the things I had put on that "shelf" suddenly collapsed it and I realized what I had believed for so many years couldn't possibly be true. By the end of the week I attended my first freethinker meeting. The uncomfortable cognitive dissonance drove me to finally accept what I knew to be true and to reject what I realized could not be true.
I am a Jehovah's witness, and while the blood issue is an important lesson in obedience and faith, it's not the most important thing about being a JW. We are living by a modern-day interpretation of texts written thousands of years ago, and trusting that our preaching work is the fulfillment of the scripture at Matthew 24:14 (the good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the earth), and therefore that God is blessing our organisation. As an organisation we have been wrong about things before, and have had to make corrections. I am a JW because I believe we have God's spirit and we have a great way of life. I don't understand everything I am taught or everything I read in the bible, but I believe in Jehovah God and the major principles he teaches us to live by. Anything we currently believe that is wrong will be corrected in due time.
About the blood issue, blood transfusions carry many risks and there are safer options available. Of course in the bible times they didn't have blood transfusions so it would have applied to drinking an animal's blood, which could have carried disease. But the most important reason we don't ingest blood is out of obedience. God's word tells us that blood is a symbol of life and all life belongs to him. You can argue semantics, for example why is blood the symbol of life, and not the brain? But ultimately it comes down to obedience and faith that God has the right to set the standards for us to live by.
I respect your decision and honesty in telling it.
One of my favorite Podcasts is named Cogniive Dissonance, with Tom and Cecil - who also take part in the Podcast Citation Needed, togheter with the guys from the Podcasts Scathing Atheist, God Awful Movie, The Skepticrat, and D and D Minus.....
I highly recommend all of them!
Tom as in Tom Scott?
@@zephyrwayfarer
Tom Curry
Very interesting, thank you!
'in the 2010s, a cult in the world believed the earth would be destroyed on December 21st, 2012'
If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.
-Shazistic
What if I can't crawl?
@@BitchChill I guess then you have time to spend coming up with less evident ways of moving forward.
A nice trick to test myself or others for cognitive dissonance is to ask if the new or opposing arguments/evidence/information are being evaluated by the same standards as the ones supporting the current position on the matter.
In most cases where you or someone is wrong this is the case. Religion is a great example of this, religious people are so entrenched in their beliefs but fail to see that they base that on very shaky evidence and weak arguments. They will judge the validity of any opposing argument or evidence by much higher standards than what they base their faith on.
Its basically similar to the saying : "You cant reason someone out of a position they did not reason themselves into. "
This video should be titled “why it’s so hard for other people to admit they’re wrong” because I am always right.
Your wrong.
@@kullingen6909 *You’re
I’m sure there’s a link between urbanisation/mass communication and higher instances and degree of cognitive dissonance. For example, we have never been exposed to so much external stimuli and information as we do through our screens today, and we can encounter so much new information that contradict our beliefs and biases. We also have to live in much more concentrated urban environments leading to us having to constantly try to unlearn our outgroup tendencies for example.
It’ll be interesting to look at the links between socioeconomic, political, and technological changes (the material base, as it were) and cognitive dissonance wrt increasing mental health problems. We’d be able to think of much more comprehensive solutions to mental health care than meds and therapy!
"do research to see if your beliefs and actions are based on evidence"
Well that already is an implicit belief, that objective evidence supersedes subjective experiences.
I'll be the first to admit that I'm slow to accept change. It takes me time to think and get past my emotions to see that what I believe may not be right. It's a work in progress
Festinger et al is honestly one of my favorite studies.
Political issues is a big one for this, where people ignore anything that goes against what they believe, no matter how good or bad it might be, or how good or bad their belief is. Like some people might be so stuck to their favourite political party that their party can do no wrong, and attack the other one for anything they do, only finding the wrong. Or even attributing the bad things their party did to the other party.
Just add I am not mentioning any specific political footballs here deliberately.
I am against Animal cruelty but with that said I do eat meat and enjoy it. I was always have this battle inside my head about my stance on meat eating and animal cruelty.
This is a cognitive dissonance too I think.
It is cognitive dissonance. I imagine in the future when everyone is vegan, the eating of meat will be thought of in a similar vein to the owning of slaves, and everyone will wonder how supposedly moral people sat by and did nothing. There's only two ways to eliminate that cognitive dissonance. Be ok with animal cruelty, or become vegan
This is just the generative aspect of our brain that assimilates to our actions
Well no suprises i noticed it myself very easily. When you realize you're over reacting or making situations worse because it anoys you yeah it's a dirty feeling you actually want to believe it's true when deep inside you you know you're wrong. Intresting stuff.
2:00 F to the person who doesn't know what continents look like
Research to find evidence?! That's what my sister has Facebook for. 🤯 (She's killing me (psychologicaly not literally)).
It's really hard to admit when your wrong when you never make mistakes. :p
Friend: "I looked into it. You were right."
Me: "Of course I was. I wouldn't have said it if I were going to be wrong. I just don't roll like that."
Friend: "Well, I was surprised. I thought for sure you were making things up."
Me: "I would never do that."
Friend: "Yeah, I get that now. When the first Google search came back, I was shocked though. Then I found scholarly articles that backed you up. You really know what you're talking back."
Me: "I sure do. And on top of all that, I manage to stay humble."
Friend: "How did you know that?"
Me: "Well, I'm me. If I don't know how humble I am, then who does?"
Friend: "No, the other thing."
Me: "That I was right? Well, primarily because you told me."
Friend: "No, the other thing. I mean, it took me a week of research to get to a point where I was at confident as you."
Me: "Oh! That! Yeah, I have no idea what you're talking about. I say a lot of right things, I don't know which one specifically you're referring to."
Friend: "I don't even know why I try sometimes."
Me: "I know how you feel. I keep trying and trying. I am the tryingist person I know. I'm so trying, it's amazing."
Friend: "Finally something we agree on."
@@sthelenskungfu Hummmm.... Your friend is the goodist.
@@lucidmoses I have the most awesome friends, and I can say that completely unbiased.
So, the point is, we're still waiting for the concession.
This happens so much to flat earthers and religious people. It even happened to me when I was catholic (not to be confused with christian)
Also with doing your research there should be caveat of how confirmation bias might make us select things that agree with our initial position and disregarding negatives... so we should be aware of that as well.
Epistemology isn’t taught... so what does the population expect
i wish more people understood the part about skewing memories to fit your current views
A very timely video, did you suspect there might be some people experiencing this?
WOW , I just thought about it today and wrote something on my "Facebook story" and few hours later this one came up on my TH-cam Home! Is this another "Selective Exposure" or not :p :p :p
During conversations about climate change, I asked two close friends separately if they wished it weren't true. I mean, wouldn't it be great if we and all the scientists were actually wrong about man-made climate change? Their response was distressing as it actually took them a while to agree that yes, it would be great if it turned out we were wrong about it. The desire to appear to be right was more important at that moment.
When a debate on any subject goes off the rails with both sides losing their composure or civility it would seem that both sides are more interested in the perception of winning an argument instead of finding out about the truth. This attitude is what has to change.
Voters seem to be more interested in leaders who will never admit fault or when they are wrong or mistaken about something. Self-correction is seen as a weakness. Perception trumps reality. Most distressingly, social media and the consequences of public shaming have made people less likely to self-correct or admit when they are wrong.
People don't know how to debate at all. Even if you throw unbeatable arguments, with all of the possible proofs, they still don't want ro say they are wrong. Instead, they just avoid your questions and try to twist your words with absurd levels mental gymnastics...
The way I dealt with that at age 15, something is still working 50 years further on the road, is to deal with uncertainty. First I recognize there is always place to better someone since we are not 'gods'. Second, we have to act on uncertainties all the time because we don't know everything [again that god thing]. So I decided to place everything between quotes until it is checked by me to aquire a better probability factor. That way I cannot be wrong if I do my best each time and apply a fair amount of brain power to it. Judgement after the fact is never adequate in that line if it does not consider all the known conditions existing at the decision making time. For this to work well I have to be involved with the real me all the time. If I didn't take the best decision it is not a defect, it is still the best I could have done at the time. All this can not qork if ultimately I do not learn from a missed target.
That way I can change the outcome without denying myself. I do not have to correct myself, it is all about knowing or not knowing... I can correct myself if I was lazy or procrastinate a little too long but all this is me. I did acknowledge who I am and still am, a bing in growth all my life. The day that growth will stop, I will die.
That doesn't make me dull or uninteresting, it does make me what I am suppose to be, myself. It put me into very difficult situations because I did challenge very often all my supreriors throughout all my life, made me move from provinces and town, have a little samba between my professions several time... But every night I was able to go to bed satisfied to have done the right thing. And I say this again, it was all solved around my 15th birthday.
It’s not hard people just don’t like that you can forgive yourself and move on from the past.
That reminds me of the book " mistakes were made but not by me ""
Right!
I never had any problem admitting I was wrong. I find this aspect of human psychology very weird.
I want my mother to know about this 😅
Do you think she would want her kids to know about it?
@@sthelenskungfu Im not by any means perfect, i have my biases and mind constructs too but i try to be oprn minded. I always try to analize my believings and i do an exercise where i try to put myself in the brain of ppl that think different than me. Every time you admit u are wrong you do a step forward. My parents are not definitely this way xD
I’m not in this case!!
I had first hand experience with Cognitive Dissonance, was quite hard to let go of my religious beliefs.
--Ex muslim Indian
The sound of shattering glass in a sitcom...
Religious people are a good example of cognitive dissonance.
I am always wrong.
It was easy.
It's easy to admit that you are are wrong, just not to yourself.
Send this to all globe believes
Cognitive dissonance sounds like mental gymnastics
It's hard to admit to being something I'm not.
I'm experiencing some kind of visual glitch at 1:17. The voiceover is fine, but the image seems somehow corrupted for a few seconds.
We need to learn to embrace cognitive dissonance, since we can't be entirely consistent.
Maybe I'm not personally responsible for the evil things my employers do. Similarly, maybe my employer isn't personally responsible for the choices I make in how I spend the wages they give me, or in which options in my employer-provided healthcare I choose to exercise.
This has to be taught in schools. In detail.
I feel like I experience this 24/7 lol
Loving all this hank green content! No disrespect to the other hosts but hank is literally the only one i'll watch, i'll actually just skip the video if its not hosted by hank lol.. Love ya hank!
So now I have a label for the feeling I had before I ditched religion and became an atheist.