20180621 《Cognitive Dissonance》:

PEOPLE WHO DO CRAZY THINGS ARE NOT NECESSARILY CRAZY

    In his 1972 book, The Social Animal, Elliot Aronson puts forward “Aronson’s First Law”: people who do crazy things are not necessarily crazy. The “crazy things” he refers to include acts of violence, cruelty, or deep prejudice – acts so extreme that they seem to reflect a psychological imbalance on the part of the perpetrator(犯罪者). Aronson, however, argues that although psychotic(精神病的) people certainly exist, even people who are generally psychologically healthy can be driven to such extremes of human behaviour that they appear insane. It is therefore important that, before diagnosing people as psychotic, social psychologists make every effort to understand the situations people have been facing and the pressures that were operating on them when the abnormal behaviour took place.

"Some situational variables(变量) can move a great proportion of us ‘normal’ adults to behave in very unappetizing ways."

Elliot Aronson

Cognitive dissonance(失调)

To illustrate his point, Aronson cites an incident that took place at Kent State University, Ohio, in 1970 in which members of the Ohio National Guard shot and killed four unarmed students, wounding nine others. Some of these students had been protesting against the American invasion of Cambodia, but others were simply crossing the campus. The reason for the shootings remains ambiguous, but the fact that it was tragically unnecessary is clear. However, in the aftermath, one Ohio schoolteacher (as well as National Guard members) asserted that the students had deserved to die, and rumours spread quickly that the slain(被杀的) girls were either pregnant, had syphilis(梅毒), or were filthy. Aronson argues that these rumours, though false, did not reflect the beliefs of psychotic minds, but rather the attempt of pressured and conflicted minds to find relief. The conflict felt by these people is known as “cognitive dissonance”, an unpleasant feeling experienced when two or more of one’s beliefs are inconsistent(不一致的). In order to reduce this dissonance, people change their attitudes, beliefs, and actions, even if this involves justifying or denying cruelty against others. This, Aronson claims, is what happened after the Kent massacre. The townspeople wanted to believe in their National Guards’ goodness, and this meant believing their victims deserved to die. The idea that the slain had been wanton(放纵的) and dirty comforted the people, relieving the emotional conflict of believing that innocent students were needlessly killed. Aronson claims that anyone could behave this way under similar circumstances. By understanding the reasons why people justify or deny the use of cruelty, we may be better placed to mediate or prevent it in wider social contexts, such as war or social prejudice.

The Kent State University shootings, in which four students were shot dead by the National Guard, caused the emotionally conflicted townspeople to denigrate(诋毁) the victims.

MORE TO KNOW…

IN CONTEXT

BRANCH

Social psychology

APPROACH

Attitude change

BEFORE

1956 Social psychologist Leon Festinger states his theory of cognitive dissonance, which posits(设想) that having inconsistent beliefs causes uncomfortable psychological tension.

1968 The My Lai Massacre of civilians in Vietnam takes place, possibly because US soldiers dehumanized(使无人性) victims to reduce cognitive dissonance.

AFTER

1978 Elliot Aronson devises the Jigsaw(拼图游戏) method of learning, involving highly interdependent(互相依赖的) small-group learning, to reduce prejudice and violence at school.

1980s Psychologists argue that dissonance experiments may not reflect real attitude changes, but a desire to seem consistent and hence socially acceptable.

ELLIOT ARONSON

Elliot Aronson grew up in Revere(里维尔，地点), Massachusetts, during the Great Depression. He won a scholarship to attend Brandeis University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree, before completing a master’s degree at Wesleyan University and a PhD at Stanford University. He has since been a professor at several universities, including Harvard and Stanford. Throughout his career, Aronson has tried to use his research findings to improve the human condition and reduce prejudice. In recognition of his work, he was given the William James Award and the Gordon Allport Prize, and was included in the list of the 100 most influential psychologists of the 20th century, published by the Review of General Psychology. He is the only person to have won all three awards offered by the American Psychological Association: for writing, teaching, and research.

Key works

1972 The Social Animal

1978 The Jigsaw Classroom

2007 Mistakes Were Made (but not by me)