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Apr 15, 2008

Tami rated it:

Sometimes, I think that the world is full of hypocrites. The news is full of politicians who preach family values and then are caught in an affair. Everyday we see religious advocates who call for peace and in the same breath state that their God is the only true God. Then, there's the business world where lying and cheating seem to be part of the game.

Sometimes, I wonder how these people live with themselves.

Mistake Were Made (but not by me) addresses that exact questi More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Jan 02, 2008

Natalie rated it:

This is easily one of my favorite non-fiction books.

When I picked it up, I had only a basic knowledge of cognitive dissonance. I'm so glad that this is the first in-depth book on the topic I read.

For one thing, it is wonderfully written. It's engaging, clear, and funny. It uses countless real life examples, both actual events and generalizations, that make it clear exactly how cognitive dissonance enters into play everywhere. The best part was they would always addres More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

May 27, 2008

Piezocuttlefish rated it:

Mistakes Were Made is a tour through the different ways in which cognitive dissonance motivates otherwise normal, good people to do wretched things. Making such stops as the tragedies of recovering so-called repressed memories, the unfortunate bias of the parts of the legal system which are immune to criticism, and growing disparities of perception between perpetrators and victims, Mistakes Were Made also highlights many other scientific and psychological tidbits. Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 27, 2008

Ryan rated it:

This is yet another wonderful book written by social psychologists, although it is probably unlikely to make the New York Times best seller list for a couple of reasons. First, this book ranks right up there with Jimmy Carter’s famed “Great Malaise” speech that pointed an accusing finger at the American people for all of their problems. No one wants to know that WE are the cause of the problem, just like no one really wants to know that I made a mistake, not someone else. This book is about cogn More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Apr 20, 2008

Eric rated it:

A highly engaging discussion on how people use self-justification to avoid admitting they've made a mistake or hurt someone or otherwise deal with the "cognitive dissonance" we encounter when one of our cherished beliefs runs aground on the rock of cold, hard reality. The one quibble I would have is the division the authors make of the world into "perpetrators" and "victims" -- a language that masks the real complexity of certain relationships and interactions in wh More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 23, 2008

Björn rated it:

A good, pointed discussion about the problems caused by cognitive dissonance. The only surprise about it is how pervasive the problems are and how little attention they get from this perspective.

Even though it contains a lot of depressing facts about people, and doesn't offer an easy answer for how to get out of the dilemma it describes, I enjoyed this book. It has a surprisingly light tone given the material, and it is very accessible.

Update: Having incorporated it int More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Matthew rated it:

I've been a longtime fan of both authors (especially Tavris), so my expectations were pleasantly met. Most of it, of course, is hammering away at how the fundamental attribution error influences relationships between couples, coworkers, or nations. They reframe the psychobabble as "self-justification" as the root of these conflicts and ongoing interpersonal difficulties. Their citations of clinical works also brings up the interesting possibility that mindfulness-based interventions ma More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2009

Nicholas rated it:

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Dec 24, 2011

Tucker rated it:

The authors describe a "dissonance theory" of self-justification. We don't like thinking of ourselves as ignorant or ill-intentioned, so to avoid this dissonance, we try to convince ourselves and others that we are doing the right thing. We may justify to protect our high self-esteem or even our low self-esteem, if that is our default state that we are reluctant to leave.

Justification of incorrect beliefs or forbidden actions is easy when it is done incrementally, what we More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 24, 2011

Jorge rated it:

Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson.

"Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)" is an interesting book about how the brain is wired for self-justification. Social psychologists Tavris and Aronson take us through a psychological ride of how we deal with cognitive dissonance. This 304-page is composed of the following eight chapters: 1. Cognitive Dissonance: The Engine of Self-justifi More...

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May 25, 2010

David rated it:

As someone interested in the psychology of religion, it's always interesting to me how cognitive weaknesses play a role in establishing and maintaining religious beliefs. Some atheists are wont to believe that religion is a kind of mental illness, but this book (and others) make it clear that's really not so. The vast majority of religious people are cognitively normal. It's just that normal human cognition is very prone to making certain kinds of errors, and religious memes propagate very easil More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 22, 2009

Steven rated it:

This is a well written, snappy book that addresses an important issue, best described by the book's title and subtitle: "Mistakes Were Made (but not by me): Why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts."

The two authors, both well reputed psychologists, use the theory of cognitive dissonance as their starting point. Leon Festinger was one of the major theorists of this approach. The authors of this book simply define the perspective thus (page 13): " More...

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Nov 19, 2009

Adelle rated it:

The authors' political biases came through as they used the beginning and the ending of the book to castigate then (2007) President George W. Bush, and to call Newt Gingrich a “hypocrite” for criticizing (now former) President Bill Clinton’s sexual affair…WITHOUT any allusion to Clinton’s defensive “I did not have sex with that woman…Miss Lewinski” statement.

But most of the center sections of the book--which thankfully were relatively free of politics--- I found endlessly fascinati More...

2 comments like

Jun 09, 2009

Trevor rated it:

I found this a remarkably challenging book to read. There was a time when I thought psychology was an odd sort of discipline. As someone who had studied physics for a while I couldn’t really bring myself to call it a science and as someone who studied philosophy I also felt it had failings on that score too. My understanding of psychology was fairly limited, but Freudian, Jungian, Behaviourist and god knows what other –isms all seemed to me to depend too much on a foundation that seemed much More...

3 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 22, 2011

Khaya rated it:

Four words:

Cognitive dissonance
Confirmation bias

According to the authors, therein lies the explanation for people's unwillingness to admit mistakes, even to themselves, in a variety of realms. This far-reaching book tackles irrational prejudices, false memories, misjudgement as a psychotherapist, prosecuting the wrong individual, blaming one's spouse for marital problems, etc. And it offers a basic explanation: we have a difficult time integrating two conflicting More...

3 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 04, 2011

Albert rated it:

Before reading this book, I had been aware of the ideas of cognitive dissonance and self-justification, having encountered them in some day-to-day personal interactions, mostly related to money. (“X is good, and I want it, but I don’t want to spend so much money on X… therefore, X is no good and I don’t want it!”)

This book studies dissonance in larger real-world situations where the stakes are much higher. Through examples about corrupt politicians, false memories, police interroga More...

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Sep 20, 2010

Kathy rated it:

Although the authors have some good points about self-justification in a few sections of the book, they clearly spend way too much time on the "problem" and their political biases than a plausible solution to overcoming self-justification. I read the last page of the book in complete disgust as to the topic they chose to end with and completely irritated that very few solutions were offered to help minimize self-justification in ourselves as well as others. I guess I should have read More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 05, 2011

Pat rated it:

This was a very interesting book that my daughter, Emily, asked me to read - it was one of her books she had to read for her business law class. It is about self-justification and acts one does and does not realize that one act like "oh well she/he deserved it" leads to building on that act until you "slide down the pyramid." One action that was noted was when Ophrah Winfrey brought James Frye down for his misrepresentation in ONE MILLION PIECES and how she uplifted him and More...

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Oct 31, 2009

Tom rated it:

I think the point the authors make in this book is a very good one: that despite being hardwired to reduce cognitive dissonance in their own favor, human beings have the capacity and responsibility to see this tendency for what it is and resist it in the interests of honesty and justice.

I see two flaws in their argument:

1) In a number of places, the authors talk about confronting our self serving beliefs with "the facts". I wonder where we're supposed to find th More...

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Jul 01, 2011

Michael rated it:

I really enjoyed this book. It caused me a lot of introspection and I've been more able to catch when I'm lying to myself to feel better about my bad decisions when I really have no reason to. We all do it. Buyers' remorse, re-telling a breakup, justifying our behavior after we've hurt someone. The list goes on and on and I LOVE this book for putting me in my place.

It tackles how unreliable our memories are, How memory repression therapy is flawed at best, how corruption is easie More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 04, 2009

Adam rated it:

This was by far the best book I have read in quite a few years. Highly recommended. It was so informative and engaging that I think I wore out my welcome reading it out loud to anyone who was nearby.

Written by two social psychologists and based on years of research, it provides a fascinating overview of cognitive dissonance, and how it applies to prejudice, memory, law, marriage, and war. The most chilling aspect of the book is that it points out how we all are subject to dealing wit More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 11, 2011

Xiaomin rated it:

I read it together with part of Michael Shermer's book on the believing brain. I love both books but I prefer this one because it's less personal and references me to more scientific journals. I also checked the credentials of both authors because I know a simple ph. d. in psychology is not enough to convince me of their authority. In the end, it is the evidence they provide and their lucuent logic convinced me the existence of confirmation bias and enabled me to exam some of my own beliefs.

I h More...

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Dec 17, 2009

Melody rated it:

Fascinating and eye-opening analysis of cognitive dissonance and the steps we take to reduce the dissonance. Politicians are the easy targets, and exploited here as such, but Tavris & Aronson also delve into personal stories. Several of them held up a mirror to my own self-justifications and made me flinch. Riveting and insightful. Recommended.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 14, 2010

Manal rated it:

This book is an eyeopener of how people justify their mistakes and how they end up making them without realizing so. It gave examples of how people can easily lose their ethical campus due to self-justification and cognitive-dissonance.

The book gave examples of mistakes made by people from different walks of life such as psychiatrists who believed the validity of a recovered memory; physicians and judges who think they are above conflict of interests; police officers who are confident More...

6 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 11, 2007

Beeb rated it:

Very insightful and explains a lot about the dissonance seen in others and maybe points a finger back at the reader to look at how we too, may use these tools. Puts questions to many memmories and questions is what we rememeber what really happened or are all our memories unique, but maybe not cast in stone?

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 19, 2010

julie rated it:

I love the premise of this book, but am turned off by the overt skepticism with which the authors approach every single case study (including ones that involve, say, childhood trauma) they use. The message seems to be "Everyone everywhere is lying and here's why." While I get that there's a fair amount of inaccuracy in people's memories and so on (hence why this book was written in the first place), the way that basically everyone who contributed their stories to this book are assumed More...

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Jan 04, 2010

Marfita rated it:

I forget, was there some evolutionary advantage to this? We choose our parties and then adapt our philosophies to fit it. Maybe this is all a part of Belonging to the Group.
Reading something else very much interested me in cognitive dissonance and this is the book to read for us lay folk! Don't try to change what someone believes, they're only going to cling to their beliefs more tenaciously. Me, I think I'll take Ben Franklin's lead and borrow a book from someone who disagrees with More...

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Sep 04, 2007

Claudia rated it:

Easy to read regardless of whether or not one has a background in psychology. However, if you do have a background in psychology depending on your concetration some or most of this book will be review BUT the examples in this book make it worth reading.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 17, 2010

Lahdeeda rated it:

I would prefer to give it 3 1/2 stars, but there's no 3 1/2.

This book explains why people hold on to the mistakes they made and how they justify not correcting them, or believing they even made a mistake when the evidence is clear.

Mistakes Were Made shows how cognitive dissonance affects our memory, the choices we make at work, in the field of law and even in marriage, schools and any place where decisions or opinions are formed/made.

I enjoyed this book and n More...

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May 02, 2011

Marissa rated it:

This is one of the best books I've ever read. The authors explain cognitive dissonance and how it leads us astray (hint: if you're feeling extremely angry at somebody, this may be a sign that they haven't done anything wrong). They debunk psychologists' focus on repressed memory and call for an overhaul of police interrogation techniques. Especially useful and inspiring are the examples of people who have managed to avoid self-justification, admit mistakes, and make corrections.

" More...

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