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

by Carol Tavris

A practice that makes no sense at all to outsiders makes perfect sense when seen through the lens of dissonance theory. During the epidemic, the villagers might have begun extracting the front teeth of all their children so that if any of them later contracted tetanus, the adults would be able to feed them. But this is a painful thing to do to children, and in any case, only some would become infected. To further justify their actions, to themselves and their children, the villagers needed to bolster the decision by adding benefits to the procedure after the fact. Thus, they might convince themselves that missing teeth had aesthetic value—“Say, that sunken-chin look is really quite attractive”—and they might even turn the surgical ordeal into a rite of passage into adulthood. And, indeed, that is just what happened. “The toothless look is beautiful,” the villagers say. “People who have all their teeth are ugly; they look like cannibals who would eat a person. A full set of teeth makes a man look like a donkey.” The toothless look has other aesthetic advantages: “We like the hissing sound it creates when we speak.” And adults console frightened children by saying, “This ritual is a sign of maturity.”20 The original medical justification for the practice is long gone. The psychological self-justification remains.