Humans don’t like cognitive dissonance—“the state of tension that occurs whenever a person holds two cognitions (ideas, attitudes, beliefs, opinions) that are psychologically inconsistent.”16 We engage in self-justifying rhetoric to reduce this dissonance. In the case of incentives for endorsements, the often subconscious thought process might go like this: “I am a good person. I supported this drug. A good person would not support a drug that is harmful. So the drug can’t be harmful because I am a good person.” We don’t see these connections laid out, and so what is produced is the opinion
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