9 min read

Spotting Cognitive Dissonance

2018/05/27

Defining Cognitive Dissonance

Definition (Wikipedia (2018)):

In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort (psychological stress) experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values. The occurrence of cognitive dissonance is a consequence of a person performing an action that contradicts personal beliefs, ideals, and values; and also occurs when confronted with new information that contradicts said beliefs, ideals, and values.


Definition (Adams (2018)):

It’s what happens to a human - and I am talking about all humans, you, me, everybody normal - when there is something that they were sure was true - either about the world or about themeselves - that is shown to be absolutely, completely not true. So when you think something is true and then you find out you are totally wrong, people tend not to say: “Oh, I must be stupid. I just didn’t realize it untill now.” People don’t do that. Instead, they rewrite the movie to make the facts - that just disproved their old thinking - they rewrite those facts in their minds to not be true or to come from a source that is not credible or to not really mean what you think they mean or to be from a different context.

Creating a Diagram using DiagrammeR

%0 Spotting Cognitive Dissonance 1->2 1->3 1->4 1->5 1->6 1->7 1->8 1 Good Point 2 word salad 3 unspecific doom forecast 4 collapse to one variable 5 expand to absurd absolute 6 mind-reader mode 7 ignore prediction 8 resistant to facts

Figure 1: Spotting Cognitive Dissonance

%0 1->2 1->3 1->4 1->5 1 Tells (Flags) 2 So... 3 Bro... 4 Dude... 5 HAHAHAHAHA!

Figure 2: Tells (Flags) for Cognitive Dissonance

Periscope by Scott Adams (@adams)

Figure 3: Periscope by Scott Adams (Adams (2018))

Example 1: Kanye West - only free thinkers can change the world

%0 Spotting Cognitive Dissonance in responses to Kanye 1->2 1->3 1->4 1->5 1->6 1->7 1->8 2->9 3->10 4->11 5->12 6->13 7->14 8->15 1 Good Point: Let`s think in new ways 2 word salad 3 unspecific doom forecast 4 collapse to one variable 5 expand to absurd absolute 6 mind-reader mode 7 ignore wrong prediction of pundits 8 resistant to facts 9 A lot of conceptual, abstract words. Sentence has internal logic, but makes no sense. 10 If this keeps going, it could tear apart the fabric of society. 11 He is just crazy. Just trying to sell records 12 Are you going to let children drive cars? That`s free thinking. 13 The real reason you`re doing that is... (Judging by actions is more predictive.) 14 Hewilldox. X doesn`t happen. 15 Credibility of source is attacked.

Figure 4: Example 1: Kanye West (Adams (2018))

R code to create diagrams

labels <- c("Good\nPoint", "word salad", "unspecific\ndoom forecast", 
  "collapse to\none variable", "expand to\nabsurd absolute", 
  "mind-reader mode", "ignore prediction", "resistant to facts")

nodes_df <-
  create_node_df(n=length(labels), 
                 type = c(1:length(labels)), 
                 label = labels,
                 shape = "polygon",
                 color = "black",
                 fixedsize = F,
                 fontname = "LM Roman 10",
                 fillcolor = "whitesmoke"
                 )

edges_df <-
  create_edge_df(from = rep(1, length(labels)-1),
               to = c(2:length(labels)),
               color = "black")

graph <-
  create_graph(nodes_df = nodes_df,
               edges_df = edges_df
              )

render_graph(graph, layout = "nicely", 
             title = "Spotting Cognitive Dissonance")
labels <- c("Tells (Flags)", "So...", "Bro...", "Dude...", "HAHAHAHAHA!")

nodes_df <-
  create_node_df(n=length(labels), 
                 type = c(1:length(labels)), 
                 label = labels,
                 shape = "polygon",
                 color = "black",
                 fixedsize = F,
                 fontname = "LM Roman 10",
                 fillcolor = "whitesmoke"
                 )

edges_df <-
  create_edge_df(from = rep(1, length(labels)-1),
               to = c(2:length(labels)),
               color = "black")

graph <-
  create_graph(nodes_df = nodes_df,
               edges_df = edges_df
              )

render_graph(graph, layout = "tree")
labels <- c("Good Point:\nLet`s think in new ways", "word salad", "unspecific\ndoom forecast", 
  "collapse to\none variable", "expand to\nabsurd absolute", 
  "mind-reader\nmode", "ignore wrong prediction\nof pundits", "resistant to facts")

labels2 <- c( "A lot of conceptual,\nabstract words.\nSentence has internal logic,\nbut makes no sense.", "If this keeps going,\nit could tear apart\nthe fabric of society.", 
  "He is just crazy.\nJust trying to sell records", "Are you going to let\nchildren drive cars?\nThat`s free thinking.", 
  "The real reason\nyou`re doing that is...\n(Judging by actions is\nmore predictive.)", "`He will do x`. X doesn`t happen.", "Credibility of\nsource is attacked.")

labels <- c(labels, labels2)



nodes_df <-
  create_node_df(n=length(labels), 
                 type = c(1:length(labels)), 
                 label = labels,
                 shape = "polygon",
                 color = "black",
                 fixedsize = F,
                 fontname = "LM Roman 10",
                 fillcolor = "whitesmoke"
                 )

edges_df <-
  create_edge_df(from = c(rep(1, 7), 2:8), 
               to = c(2:8, 9:15),
               color = "black")

graph <-
  create_graph(nodes_df = nodes_df,
               edges_df = edges_df
              )

render_graph(graph, layout = "nicely",  
             title = "Spotting Cognitive Dissonance\nin responses to Kanye")

References

Adams, Scott. 2018. “Scott Adams Teaches You How to Spot Cognitive Dissonance.” https://www.pscp.tv/w/1BdxYRrVEqzKX.