PDF Download Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
MISTAKES WERE MADE (BUT NOT BY ME): WHY WE JUSTIFY FOOLISH BELIEFS, BAD DECISIONS, AND HURTFUL ACTS PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Carol Tavris,University Emeritus Elliot Aronson | 400 pages | 20 Oct 2015 | Mariner Books | 9780544574786 | English | United States Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts PDF Book Hurts and grievances in both parties have probably been building for some time. Once again, we see what we expect to see. In an effort to convince ourselves that the more desirable belief is the correct one, we will selectively focus on evidence supporting the more desirable belief and deny, ignore, or minimize evidence supporting the less desirable belief confirmation bias. But just because all men are mortal, it does not follow that all mortals are men, and it certainly does not follow that all men are Socrates. Yet brain scientists have uncovered details every business leader, parent, and teacher should know—like the need for physical activity … More. Basically, we can have experiences that we think are real, especially in the past, yet they never happened. And while individual scientists can be recalcitrant, the discipline as a whole is self-correcting, and moves on. The answer is exactly the way the rest of us do. Their citations of clinical works also brings up the interesting possibility that mindfulness-based interventions may be most I've been a longtime fan of both authors especially Tavris , so my expectations were pleasantly met. More videos The theory is that we need to overcome the cognitive dissonance that emerges when our actions conflict with our self-image or beliefs. Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson weave a slowly accelerating narrative of the power of cognitive dissonance in our lives, one that grows ever closer to home. These ubiquitous feats of mental gymnastics give rise to various appalling truths, one of which is best described by research psychologist John Kihlstrom. Structurally speaking, the book is very simple. For example, maybe a friend asked for a favor and you said no. They give just enough details that, if you're well versed in probability or logic, you can see a million ways that the study they just mentioned could easily be flawed into being meaningless or not generalizable. That there have been a network of lines that intersected and by a series of coincidences they have ended up here. In the tradition of The Wisdom of Crowds and Predictably Irrational comes Being Wrong , an illuminating exploration of what it means to be in error and why homo sapiens tend to tacitly assume or loudl… More. That's why the catharsis hypothesis is wrong. Sadly humans are hardwired with many biases that makes them fallible creatures This is a well written, snappy book that addresses an important issue, best described by the book's title and subtitle: "Mistakes Were Made but not by me : Why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts. A review in O, The Oprah Magazine praised the book for "the scientific evidence it provides and the charm of its down-to-earth, commonsensical tone". It was in fact both these things, but it was also far, far more depressing than I had expected. You don't particularly like the process but, as you want to be a part of this social group - you continue to participate in it. Elliot Aronson. Who started it, and when? A delightfully unsparing look into what your brain is doing behind your back. What is so insidious about the phrase which Clinton even joked about using it so much is that it is a complete avoidance of responsibility. Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts Writer Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Want to Read saving…. We might even change our minds before our brains freeze our thoughts into consistent patterns. Shelves: behavioural-economics , psychology. Shelves: university , policy-studies , psychology , social-psychology. As much as I read, there are few books that are enlightening, educational, and entertaining enough for me to rate them so highly. You get hi to take one step at a time, and self-justification will do the rest. Carol Tavris and Elliot Aron Mistakes Were Made is a tour through the different ways in which cognitive dissonance motivates otherwise normal, good people to do wretched things. Cognitive dissonance is the discomfort we feel when confronted with new information which contradicts our most prized beliefs, including the belief that we are intelligent, moral people; this leads us to deny or to justify our mistakes. First, what good can be served by cognitive dissonance? To illustrative these concepts, the authors give an abundance of examples to attempt to justify their arguments, but the examples are all basically identical: The person does bad thing; they think "I'm a good person, I couldn't have done a bad thing"; they rationalize their bad thing as being either good, not that bad, or unavoidable; when confronted with challenging evidence, they double down. Issues include: moral lapses e. Refresh and try again. It was such a great experience and trip for me to read such a wonderful and well written socio psychological book. In the tradition of The Wisdom of Crowds and Predictably Irrational comes Being Wrong , an illuminating exploration of what it means to be in error and why homo sapiens tend to tacitly assume or loudl… More. However, it also gets us into trouble. No one wants to know that WE are the cause of the problem, just like no one really wants to know that I made a mistake, not someone else. When I first heard about this experiment remember, we are talking about events that have all taken place in a span of slightly more than half an hour I was shocked at what this experiment implied about our justice system. Also, the work by cognitive psychologists like Kahneman and Tversky could have spoken to key points as well. Why is the Mona Lisa the most famous painting in the world? So we reduce cognitive dissonance in selecting thoughts which make the achievement or possession seem more valuable. Shelving menu. The section of this book on police interrogation methods should be made compulsory reading. But most of the center sections of the book--which thankfully were relatively free of politics I found endlessly fascinating. Download as PDF Printable version. Other Editions Basically the reasoning parts of our brain shut down when confronted with "dissonant" information, and the emotion circuits light up. Without some outside confirming source, we cannot trust our memories too much. There are some tips for the reader on ways they can try to manage cognitive dissonance in themselves, but such tips are also few in number. Keen, practical eye-opening read. This book has a protagonist , well ,i think it's more of an antagonist to us named : cognitive dissonance i am so in love with this character hhhhh "Mistakes Were Made But Not By Me" discusses all SORTS of lengths human being may go in order to reduce cognitive dissonance. About Carol Tavris. If not, than hide the sharp objects and designate a trusted friend to be at the ready to talk you down when it hits you how hopelessly self delusional all us humans actually is. It started with Iraq had pile of weapon of mass destruction but at the end of event there was no such thing still we try to justified the event with other matter such as stability in Middle East democracy In this book we see the the trail of self-justification through the territories of family, memory, therapy, law, prejudice, conflict, and war. The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki. It says the same basic thing at this book, but in a much more compelling and informative way. Fine—but most of us learn to count to ten and find alternatives to beating the other guy with a cudgel. Apr 09, Susan S. Cognitive psychologists consider stereotypes to be energy-saving devices that allow us to make efficient decisions on the basis of past experience; help us quickly process new information and retrieve memories; make sense of real differences between groups; and predict, often with considerable accuracy, how others will behave or how they think. I don't have time to go through all of the useful purposes that these cognitive processes serve, but here's a few: seeing ourselves as good people allows us to achieve more than people who are depressed and who have a more realistic perception of themselvesand applying patterns from old situations to new ones helps us to adapt to novelty and change more effectively. That wouldn't be a problem if they hadn't already spent a chapter bagging on therapists for having pet theories without looking at evidence that would contradict the theory. Once again, we see what we expect to see. This is one of those books that every time you put it down you have to run and find someone to tell what you just read. And the answer is yes we can! This book offers a fascinating explanation of self- justification — how it works, the damage it can cause, and how we can overcome it. Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts Reviews Unfortunately, the authors bias came through very strongly in several of the examples used, and this distracts from the points the authors are attempting to make. Other Editions The cost that I'm referring to, is the naked experience of the pain of realizing that we are in fact human after all.