#130 - Carol Tavris, Ph.D. & Elliot Aronson, Ph.D.: Recognizing and overcoming cognitive dissonance

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

September 28, 2020

Duration

1h 59m

Channel

Peter Attia MD

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Renowned social psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson are the co-authors of Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me), a book which explores the science of cognitive biases and discusses how the human brain is wired for self-justification. In this episode, Carol and Elliot discuss how our desire to reconcile mental conflicts adversely affects many aspects of society. The two give real-world examples to demonstrate the pitfalls in attempts to reduce mental conflict, or dissonance. The examples reveal that no one is immune to dissonance reduction behavior, how intellectual honesty can be trained and lastly, how to think critically in order to avoid engaging in harmful dissonant behaviors. We discuss: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:04:00 - Carol and Elliot’s respective background, collaboration history, and their decision to write Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me) 00:11:15 - The theory of cognitive dissonance, and real examples of dissonance reduction in action 00:23:00 - How Elliot advanced the theory of cognitive dissonance 00:30:30 - The evolutionary reason for dissonance reduction, and cultural differences in what causes cognitive dissonance 00:35:15 - The great danger of smart, powerful people engaging in dissonance reduction 00:39:30 - Two case studies of cognitive dissonance in criminal justice 00:43:30 - The McMartin preschool case study—The danger in making judgements before knowing all the information 00:56:30 - How ideology distorts science and public opinion 00:58:00 - How time distorts memories 01:05:30 - The downside of certainty 01:09:00 - Are we all doomed to cognitive dissonance?—How two people with similar beliefs can diverge 01:20:00 - Cognitive dissonance in the police force 01:27:30 - A toolkit for overcoming cognitive dissonance 01:30:30 - Importance of separating identity from beliefs, thinking critically, & and the difficulty posed by political polarity 01:48:00 - How to impart the lessons from their work into future generations Show notes page: https://peterattiamd.com/caroltavris-elliotaronson/ About: The Peter Attia Drive is a weekly, ultra-deep-dive podcast focusing on maximizing health, longevity, critical thinking…and a few other things. With over 30 million episodes downloaded, it features topics including fasting, ketosis, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, mental health, and much more. Peter is a physician focusing on the applied science of longevity. His practice deals extensively with nutritional interventions, exercise physiology, sleep physiology, emotional and mental health, and pharmacology to increase lifespan (delay the onset of chronic disease), while simultaneously improving healthspan (quality of life). Learn more: https://peterattiamd.com/ Subscribe to receive exclusive subscriber-only content: https://peterattiamd.com/subscribe/ Sign up to receive Peter's email newsletter: https://peterattiamd.com/newsletter/ Connect with Peter on: Facebook: http://bit.ly/PeterAttiaMDFB Twitter: http://bit.ly/PeterAttiaMDTW Instagram: http://bit.ly/PeterAttiaMDIG Subscribe to The Drive: Apple Podcast: http://bit.ly/TheDriveApplePodcasts Overcast: http://bit.ly/TheDriveOvercast Spotify: http://bit.ly/TheDriveSpotify Google Play: http://bit.ly/TheDriveGooglePlay

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Dr. Elliot Aronson

  guest

  Social psychologist known for foundational research on cognitive dissonance and author of The Social Animal.

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Peter Attia MD, featuring Dr. Peter Attia and Dr. Carol Tavris, #130 - Carol Tavris, Ph.D. & Elliot Aronson, Ph.D.: Recognizing and overcoming cognitive dissonance explores why Smart People Justify Mistakes and How to Stop Aronson, who trained under Leon Festinger, explains that dissonance is an unpleasant mental state people unconsciously reduce, often by protecting their self-image rather than following the evidence, as in the smoking, $1 versus $20 lie, and catharsis examples.

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