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CAROL TAVRIS IIlIa ELLIOT ARONSON
want to buy mat canoe in January, really wane (0 send good money
after bad. really want to hold on
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a belief that is unfettered by facts.
We might even change our minds before our brains freeze our thoughts into consistent patterns. Becoming aware: mat we are in a scare of dissonance can help us make sharper. smarter, conscious choices instead of leeting amo marie. self-protective mechanisms resolve our discomfort in our favor. Suppose your unpleasant. aggressive coworker has just made an innovative suggestion at a group meeting. You could say [0 your self, "An ignorant jerk like her could not possibly have a good idea about anything," and shoot her suggestion down in flames because you dislike the woman so much (and, you admit it, you feel compet jtive with her for your manager's approval). Or you could give your self some breathing room and ask: "Could the idea be a smart one? How would I feel about it if it came from my ally on this project?" If it is a good idea, you might suppOrt your coworker's proposal even if you continue
to
dislike her as a person. You keep the message sep
arate from me messenger. The goal is to become aware of the twO dissonant cognitions that are causing distress and find a way (0 resolve them constructively, or, when we can't, learn to live with them. In 1985. Israeli prime minis ter Shimon Peres was thrown into dissonance by an action taken by his ally and friend Ronald Reagan. Peres had accepted an invitation
to
was
angry because Reagan
pay a state visit to the Kolmeshohe
Cemetery at Bitburg, Germany,
to
symbolize the two nations' post
war reconciliation. The announcement of me proposed visit en raged Holocaust survivors and many orhers, because forty-nine Nazi Waffen-SS officers were buried mere. Reagan, however, did nor back down from his decision to visit the cemetery. When reporters asked Peres what he thought of Reagan's action, Peres neither condemned Reagan personally nor minimized the seriousness of the visit to Bit burg. Instead, Peres took a third course. "When a friend makes a