Cognitive Dissonance and Cultural Beliefs

Actually I gave the money to charity.is that still an example of CD in your eyes?

So every single change of mind or change in behaviour constitutes an example of cognitive dissonance in your view?I was going to eat a sandwich for lunch until a colleague reminded me that a new Korean place had opened across the road. I changed my mind (and behaviour) about lunch. Was that CD in action too?I was going to unthinkingly return the money to the bank until I was persuaded by newspapers, TV and the debate sites I happen to frequent that this would add nothing to anything I care about and would simply be gobbled up in undeserving bonuses. So I changed my mind and gave the money to charity.Why do you insist on seeing CD at every turn. People change their minds, change the behaviours for all sorts of reasons.

It matters because that will decide whether there is any conflict or not. Absolutely. That is exactly the question. That is my point. Without any conflict any diagnosis of CD is misplaced. I didn't do anything to reduce any inner conflict because there wasn't really any inner conflict in the situation as I have detailed it. As soon as I stopped and considered the situation it was glaringly obvious that the money should go to charity rather than evil bankers.

Again — Yes. Absolutely. Conflict is the primary issue here. If I had spent that money on an new car or a grand holiday it would be relatively difficult to reconcile my own selfish actions with my denigration of greedy-self-interested-money- grabbing-bankers. In this case there would be conflict that I may well seek to resolve by some sort of self-justification or even more vitriolic advocacy of the evilness of bankers. But giving the money to charity means there is no such conflict.So what the money is spent on is highly relevant to whether or not there is any conflict to be resolved. You also asked What difference does it make what you spend the money on?. I have told you what difference it makes. It makes the difference between conflict or lack of it. I’m disputing the emphasis on symptoms that has so far been prevalent in this thread. There has been a lot of Oh look there is a bunch of people who hold an idiotic opinion. They must be suffering from cognitive dissonance. Or Oh look that person has changed their behaviour after considering the facts. They must be suffering from cognitive dissonance.Now I’m not disputing that people do change their behaviour as a result of seeking to resolve cognitive dissonance. And you have done a good job of exemplifying the sort of idiotic beliefs that cognitive dissonance can result in. But there are numerous other reasons people hold idiotic beliefs and numerous other reasons people change their behaviour. If we actually want to look at the psychological phenomenon of cognitive dissonance we need to look for evidence of actual internal conflict and not just at actions or beliefs that may or may not be caused by such conflict.

Wherever there is any behaviour that could conceivably be considered consistent with cognitive dissonance you are proclaiming cognitive dissonance to be present.

Hat stands and elephants aside this thread could do with some consideration of how internal conflict might reliably be discerned.

There is a spectrum of anger too. But not every fist clenched is a sign of anger is it? So when in debates you accuse others of cognitive dissonance you are actually merely pointing out that there is disagreement and highlighting that all disagreeing parties are suffering from CD including you?Why don't you say that then? Rather than perennially accuse everyone who disagrees with you significantly of relentlessly suffering from CD such that every debate you partake in becomes a RAZD led discussion about who is or isn't experiencing cognitive dissonance. Why don't you just say "We disagree. We are all, very much including myself, experiencing cognitive dissonance here".....? If cognitive dissonance is just a natural and inevitable symptom of disagreement experienced by all those disagreeing then it barely seems worth pointing out that people are experiencing this on a debate board does it?As I said before.....I think you use accusations of cognitive dissonance essentially as a debate tactic. A method of deflecting from the issue at hand by instead relentlessly focussing on the (supposed) mental state of your opponent.For what it’s worth I think you would be a better debater if you stopped accusing everyone who disagrees with you significantly of being in a state of cognitive dissonance.