To do anything in an uncertain world takes confidence in ourselves and in our beliefs. Without such convictions, we'd rarely get out of bed in the morning. Of course, no one (except the insane and the pope) claims to be in any way infallible. We all make mistakes - but few of us enjoy having them pointed out, or readily change as a result. In this fascinating and important book, Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson illustrate the many ways in which all kinds of people, including even psychologists, "when directly confronted with proof that they are wrong, do not change their point of view or course of action but justify it even more tenaciously". The varied and ingenious ways in which mistakes are made and then unconsciously covered up is often amusing, sometimes tragic, and always compelling. The accounts are not just for our entertainment: edification comes thanks to the explanatory framework of dissonance theory. The moral of the story, as usual, is easier said than done: next time you screw up, try saying: "I made a mistake. I need to understand what went wrong. I don't want to make the same mistake again".
Far more common than politicians who lie are those for whom irrefutable evidence that they got things wrong is merely an invitation to engage in self-justification. Although George W. Bush was wrong about many things - that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was linked with Al Qaeda, for example - throughout his presidency he was more inclined to justify his decisions rather than straightforwardly admit he was wrong. When pushed, we've all been tempted by the passive construction - "mistakes were made" - to put distance between us and our errors. Tavris and Aronson believe that "self-justification is more powerful and more dangerous than the explicit lie" because it allows us to convince ourselves that what we did was the best thing we could have done.
Exposing politicians who are good at deflecting criticism is not science and hardly news, however, and Tavris and Aronson soon move on from the high-profile and well-documented example of George W. Bush. Before they widen their scope to include just about everybody else, and to avoid the book becoming a procession of jaw-dropping but unconnected anecdotes, they first outline the theory of cognitive dissonance, which they use throughout to explain some otherwise very strange behaviour. Whenever we hold two ideas, attitudes, beliefs or opinions that are psychologically inconsistent, we experience an uncomfortable state of tension. Dissonance "is disquieting because to hold two ideas that contradict each other is to flirt with absurdity" and so it's not surprising that we go to some lengths to reduce dissonance. And, to make a bad cognitive situation worse, we indulge in the self-flattering idea that we "process information logically" rather than in more self-serving ways.
Imagine being innocent of a crime and yet accused. There's no way we'd confess! We'd be in good company in thinking such a thing impossible. Although "obviously one of the most dangerous mistakes that can occur in police interrogation", most detectives, prosecutors and judges share this view that innocent people simply don't confess. Those at the sharp end even have a manual of interrogation methods that virtually guarantees that such mistakes won't happen, so long as you follow the techniques laid down. "The manual is written in an authoritative tone as if it were the voice of God revealing indisputable truths, but in fact it fails to teach its readers a core principle of scientific thinking: the importance of examining and ruling out other possible explanations for a person's behavior before deciding which one is the most likely."
The trouble is, innocent people do get jailed, many more than will ever come to light. For one thing, reviewing old cases runs the risk of unearthing injustice, which means a heavy dose of dissonance for those responsible. Sending an innocent man to prison for fifteen years "is so antithetical to your view of your competence that you will go through mental hoops to convince yourself that you couldn't possibly have made such a blunder".
Changing trees once you realize you're barking up the wrong one is hard to do, and made harder by the fact that training often increases people's confidence in the accuracy of their judgements, not the accuracy itself. When tested, detectives who had had special training in the Reid Technique "did no better than chance, yet they were convinced that their accuracy rate was close to 100 percent". The problem here is that "the professional training of most police officers, detectives, judges, and attorneys" barely mentions their own cognitive biases.
Psychotherapists are also vulnerable to a "misplaced reliance on their own powers of observation and the closed loop it creates". If there's no way for your theory to be wrong, if every outcome confirms your hypotheses, "your beliefs are a matter of faith, not science". This is why Freud, "for all his illuminating observations about civilization and its discontents, was not doing science".
This is the heart of scientific reasoning, and cannot be stressed too often: for any theory to be scientific, "it must be stated in such a way that it can be shown to be false as well as true". Indeed, while we all naturally like to be proved right, the scientific method is often all about proving us wrong, and an essential if sometimes uncomfortable aspect of the scientific attitude is that we should change our beliefs "once they are discredited". I'll leave the last word to the authors of this brilliant book.
"Scientific reasoning is useful to anyone in any job because it makes us face the possibility, even the dire reality, that we were mistaken. It forces us to confront our self-justifications and put them on public display for others to puncture. At its core, therefore, science is a form of arrogance control."
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Follow the authors
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
Frequently bought together
This item: Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions and Hurtful Acts (2020 edition - updated and revised)
£12.21
In stock
+
£6.40
Get it as soon as Thursday, Dec 26
In stock
+
£6.43
In stock
Total price: $00
To see our price, add these items to your basket.
Choose items to buy together.
Products related to this item
Page 1 of 1Start overPage 1 of 1
Top reviews from other countries
JulzB
