Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Cognitive Dissonance II
My second favorite cognitive dissonance story ever goes something like this (forgive me if I embellish, I heard the story second hand. I am sure I will be corrected as both of the people involved are friends of mine):
It's the mid-80's. Two young men are about to be the male leads in a high school play. One, a junior, is the star of his high school's drama department. The other is a talented freshman. He will, eventually, become the star of the department. This is his first production.
The freshman had been brilliant in rehearsal. The junior notices, as the show is about to open, the freshman is having terrible stage fright. The show opens and the freshman is horrible. His nerves completely debilitated him.
After the show, the junior pulls the freshman aside. He tells the freshman something along these lines:
I noticed that you had some stage fright problems tonight. I want to share with you this old, and honored technique to deal with stage fright. It's a classic technique used by many great actors throughout the years.
I want you to go out and buy the nicest crystal wine glass you can find. It has to be crystal.
Bring it to the theater.
As part of your show prep, you have to fill the glass with water. Stare at the glass of water. Make your mind as clear as the water. Become the water.
Once you are the water. Once your mind is that clear. Drink the water.
The freshman does this for the next show, and the subsequent run of the show. His stage fright disappears. He is brilliant on stage and steals the show.
At the end of the run, the freshman thanks the junior for the help, and for showing him this great acting technique.
At this point, the junior comes clean. He tells the freshman that he had made it all up. He was just trying to get the freshman out of his head.
The kicker for this is that the junior was my closest friend my senior year in high school, Byron ... who was, not much later, a groomsman in my wedding.
The freshman was my little brother, Craig.
It's the mid-80's. Two young men are about to be the male leads in a high school play. One, a junior, is the star of his high school's drama department. The other is a talented freshman. He will, eventually, become the star of the department. This is his first production.
The freshman had been brilliant in rehearsal. The junior notices, as the show is about to open, the freshman is having terrible stage fright. The show opens and the freshman is horrible. His nerves completely debilitated him.
After the show, the junior pulls the freshman aside. He tells the freshman something along these lines:
I noticed that you had some stage fright problems tonight. I want to share with you this old, and honored technique to deal with stage fright. It's a classic technique used by many great actors throughout the years.
I want you to go out and buy the nicest crystal wine glass you can find. It has to be crystal.
Bring it to the theater.
As part of your show prep, you have to fill the glass with water. Stare at the glass of water. Make your mind as clear as the water. Become the water.
Once you are the water. Once your mind is that clear. Drink the water.
The freshman does this for the next show, and the subsequent run of the show. His stage fright disappears. He is brilliant on stage and steals the show.
At the end of the run, the freshman thanks the junior for the help, and for showing him this great acting technique.
At this point, the junior comes clean. He tells the freshman that he had made it all up. He was just trying to get the freshman out of his head.
The kicker for this is that the junior was my closest friend my senior year in high school, Byron ... who was, not much later, a groomsman in my wedding.
The freshman was my little brother, Craig.
Labels: cognitive dissonance
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Cognitive Dissonance or "Messing with Someone Else's Head for Fun"
Wikipedia says this about cognitive dissonance:
Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. The "ideas" or "cognitions" in question may include attitudes and beliefs, and also the awareness of one's behavior. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, or by justifying or rationalizing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.[1] Cognitive dissonance theory is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in social psychology.
Dissonance normally occurs when a person perceives a logical inconsistency among his or her cognitions. This happens when one idea implies the opposite of another. For example, a belief in animal rights could be interpreted as inconsistent with eating meat or wearing fur. Noticing the contradiction would lead to dissonance, which could be experienced as anxiety, guilt, shame, anger, embarrassment, stress, and other negative emotional states. When people's ideas are consistent with each other, they are in a state of harmony, or consonance. If cognitions are unrelated, they are categorized as irrelevant to each other and do not lead to dissonance.
A powerful cause of dissonance is when an idea conflicts with a fundamental element of the self-concept, such as "I am a good person" or "I made the right decision." The anxiety that comes with the possibility of having made a bad decision can lead to rationalization, the tendency to create additional reasons or justifications to support one's choices. A person who just spent too much money on a new car might decide that the new vehicle is much less likely to break down than his or her old car. This belief may or may not be true, but it would likely reduce dissonance and make the person feel better. Dissonance can also lead to confirmation bias, the denial of disconfirming evidence, and other ego defense mechanisms.
Now, cognitive dissonance as a source of amusement:
About 8 years ago, or so, I was visiting my parents in Missouri. During the course of the visit, the birth mother of my brother's son let him visit with us for a day.
Brandon was 8, and, therefore, quite a bit shorter than I am.
He walked up real close to me. He had to look almost straight up to see my face, and said: "Hi, Uncle Kevin!"
I smiled down at him, and said: "Hi, Brandon. How old are you, now?"
He beamed up at me, and said: "I'm 8, Uncle Kevin."
I kind of crinkled up my face, put my hands in my pockets, and said: "Humph, ... when I was your age, I was 9."
It was hilarious!
Imagine, if you will, driving a car with a standard transmission down the interstate at about 70 miles an hour. Now, attempt to shift that car into reverse, and slam in back into the top gear.
That is what I saw play out on this young kid's face.
And once he had slammed his brain back into the "top gear", he looked up me, grinned, and said: "Kev!"
The tone of his voice was, at once, chiding, for messing with him, and that tone that said I had met his expectations ... I accepted him. I was "me". The "me" he expected.
I scooped him up in my arms, and we hugged. ... and had a great day, together.
Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. The "ideas" or "cognitions" in question may include attitudes and beliefs, and also the awareness of one's behavior. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, or by justifying or rationalizing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.[1] Cognitive dissonance theory is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in social psychology.
Dissonance normally occurs when a person perceives a logical inconsistency among his or her cognitions. This happens when one idea implies the opposite of another. For example, a belief in animal rights could be interpreted as inconsistent with eating meat or wearing fur. Noticing the contradiction would lead to dissonance, which could be experienced as anxiety, guilt, shame, anger, embarrassment, stress, and other negative emotional states. When people's ideas are consistent with each other, they are in a state of harmony, or consonance. If cognitions are unrelated, they are categorized as irrelevant to each other and do not lead to dissonance.
A powerful cause of dissonance is when an idea conflicts with a fundamental element of the self-concept, such as "I am a good person" or "I made the right decision." The anxiety that comes with the possibility of having made a bad decision can lead to rationalization, the tendency to create additional reasons or justifications to support one's choices. A person who just spent too much money on a new car might decide that the new vehicle is much less likely to break down than his or her old car. This belief may or may not be true, but it would likely reduce dissonance and make the person feel better. Dissonance can also lead to confirmation bias, the denial of disconfirming evidence, and other ego defense mechanisms.
Now, cognitive dissonance as a source of amusement:
About 8 years ago, or so, I was visiting my parents in Missouri. During the course of the visit, the birth mother of my brother's son let him visit with us for a day.
Brandon was 8, and, therefore, quite a bit shorter than I am.
He walked up real close to me. He had to look almost straight up to see my face, and said: "Hi, Uncle Kevin!"
I smiled down at him, and said: "Hi, Brandon. How old are you, now?"
He beamed up at me, and said: "I'm 8, Uncle Kevin."
I kind of crinkled up my face, put my hands in my pockets, and said: "Humph, ... when I was your age, I was 9."
It was hilarious!
Imagine, if you will, driving a car with a standard transmission down the interstate at about 70 miles an hour. Now, attempt to shift that car into reverse, and slam in back into the top gear.
That is what I saw play out on this young kid's face.
And once he had slammed his brain back into the "top gear", he looked up me, grinned, and said: "Kev!"
The tone of his voice was, at once, chiding, for messing with him, and that tone that said I had met his expectations ... I accepted him. I was "me". The "me" he expected.
I scooped him up in my arms, and we hugged. ... and had a great day, together.
