Steel Notes Magazine October "Halloween" Issue 2016 | Page 93
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However, it is not always possible to remove
dissonance by changing our behavior.
Sometimes the obstacles may be too difficult
to overcome. For example, for a gambler who
loses a large sum of money, it is quite
difficult to reverse the decision to gamble.
So, more frequently, dissonance reduction
occurs through the change in our beliefs
through openness to new knowledge or
information. Then, in this case, we reevaluate
the considerations that led us to make that
decision.
The cognitive dissonance theory explains
why, in some situations, people are able to
make reprehensible actions by accepting and
justifying their behavior. For example, if you
do not pay taxes, you could feel a cognitive
dissonance. Consciously you know that this
action is not socially acceptable and is
probably contrary to the principles by which
your parents have raised you. To reduce
discomfort, you can try to reevaluate your
position and give greater weight to those
aspects in favor of your choice not to pay
taxes by thinking, for example, that the tax is
unfair or there are too many taxes, etc.
The cognitive dissonance theory also explains
why people sometimes express approval and
appreciation for unpleasant experiences that
occurred the past. For example, people who
have suffered corporal punishment at school
have sometimes claimed to have found
benefit from such treatment and, as a result,
they support coercive methods of discipline.
Also, the members of groups who are forced
to endure humiliating initiation rites later tend
to reevaluate the experience, considering it to
have been formative. In this case, they justify
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the painful experiences and overestimate the
status of the group responsible for the
suffering they endured.
In short, to simplify, it is as though we are not
telling ourselves the whole story—just like
the fox in Phaedrus’s fable, commenting on
grapes that it could not grasp: nondum mature
est!
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