Author Elliot Aronson. Measuring Mistakes.
It’s easy to fool yourself. In fact, you probably do it every day. The psychological term is “dissonance reduction” and it turns out that the process is probably biological, at the root of many human actions. The phenomenon was first described 50 years ago by social psychologist Leon Festinger and was later refined by his star student, Elliot Aronson. Today Aronson is an award-winning author, esteemed professor and legendary social psychologist. He’s known for applying the complex theories and discoveries of social psychology to everyday life, for giving the average Joe and Jill the tools they need to hack their own brains. His signature book “The Social Animal,” (now in its tenth edition), unlocked the arcane secrets of social psychology for the masses years ago and his book “Social Psychology” is the de facto text for teaching the subject. In 2007, on the 50th anniversary of Festinger’s groundbreaking discovery of cognitive dissonance, Aronson released his latest masterwork, “Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts.”
“The title is jazzy, but maybe a little misleading,” says Aronson. “The book isn’t simply about lying or apologizing for errors or owning up to mistakes. It’s primarily about how we pull the wool over our own eyes, which makes it impossible for us to own up to mistakes.” Aronson wrote the book with colleague Carol Tavris on his Mac. But there’s a catch. The author suffers from macular degeneration and has lost roughly 90 percent of his vision.
But Aronson, a long-time Mac user, was liberated by his Mac mini and Mac OS X. “When Mac OS X was released with VoiceOver it was a lifesaver,” says Aronson. “It’s the single most important technical invention for me. It kept me in the game, allowed me to write without really being able to see the words on the screen.”
Fooling Yourself
We all like to think of ourselves as honest, competent and compassionate people. When we make a mistake or lose control, we’ll do almost anything to justify our actions, including lying to ourselves about what we’ve done. It’s a biological survival tool, a means to keep our spirits up and forge on after we’ve done something “wrong.” “It’s a natural process,” says Aronson. “It’s hardwired, it shows up in brain scans. And it has an advantage. For example, if we spill wine on ourselves or say something stupid at a party, if we can convince ourselves that nobody noticed, it helps us sleep at night, gives a means of dealing with minor gaffs or embarrassing mistakes.”
Seems like a straightforward concept, even common knowledge. But things get tricky when big mistakes are made. “Unfortunately, we can all think of poignant examples of big mistakes that often get bigger,” says Aronson. “In the zeal to justify our mistakes, we often aren’t aware we’re even making them, or, worse, making those mistakes even more damaging through justification.” This is why understanding cognitive dissonance is key to helping us become better leaders, better citizens, better co-workers and better spouses, says Aronson.
Aronson and Tavris wanted to bring the theory to the masses. To do it, they decided to pen a work of popular nonfiction. Aronson’s eyesight, however, could have put a damper on the project. Luckily, he was able to use VoiceOver and Text-To-Speech, built-in features of Mac OS X, to craft and edit his portion of the book. It makes a previously impossible task attainable. “I can touch type and have my words read back to me,” he says. “I view Fred, the voice I’ve chosen to read for me, as a good friend now, a colleague—as funny as that sounds.”
