YANSS 301 – How our struggle to resolve cognitive dissonance can make us more wrong, not less, and less moral not more
In this episode, we discuss the landmark 1959 study that popularized the term “cognitive dissonance,” and we dive into the current state of dissonance research with Dr. Sarah Stein Lubrano, a political scientist who studies how cognitive dissonance affects all sorts of political behavior. Lubrano is the co-host of a podcast about activism called What Do We Want? She also wrote a book that’s coming out in May of 2025 titled Don’t Talk About Politics which is about how to discuss politics without necessarily talking about politics.
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In episode one of this series, we spent time with the scientists who infiltrated a doomsday cult that predicted the exact date and circumstances of the end of the world, and when that date passed and the circumstances did not occur, instead of saying, “Oh, I guess we were wrong about that,” they found a way to keep believing and grow more fervent in their devotion.
We established that when you notice you’ve done something that you believe is wrong, you will either stop doing that thing or stop believing it is wrong. And if you come across information that disconfirms one of your beliefs, you’ll either change that belief, challenge the validity of the challenging information, or go looking for some information that suggests no, in fact, you are totally right.
In this episode, we take a deep dive into the nature of dissonance theory and explore just why it is that humans are compelled to return to a state of consistency when we notice two beliefs, two behaviors, or a belief and a behavior are inconsistent. We explore why this form of error detection usually keeps us stable and correct and properly oriented, but when the conditions are just right, our efforts to see ourselves as right and proper and decent can lead us to become more wrong, not less – factually, morally, and otherwise.
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