Steve Spencer wrote:
Sorry, I can\'t help myself here because I study cognitive dissonance. What wickerprints initially described--glamorizing the positive aspects of something you have chosen and failing to see or fully acknowledge it\'s faults--is what is a classic example of cognitive dissonance and it is a well known psychological phenomenon and we probably all do it to at least some extent at least some of the time. Sour grapes--or denigarting what you cannot attain as in the classic Aesop fable--could be argued to result from cognitive dissonance, but is not a classic example of it. Neither is there clear evidence demonstrating under what circumstances the phenomenon occurs. Simply put as a psychological phenomenon it is much more poorly understood.
a conflict or anxiety resulting from inconsistencies between one\'s beliefs and one\'s actions or other belief
Denial of reality in favor of an unsubstantiated belief hardly equals to inconstancies in one belief. It\'s cognitive resonance if anything (I just made that up).
Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and actions.[2] Dissonance is also reduced by justifying, blaming, and denying. It is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in social psychology.
Experience can clash with expectations, as, for example, with buyer\'s remorse following the purchase of an expensive item. In a state of dissonance, people may feel surprise,[2] dread, guilt, anger, or embarrassment. People are biased to think of their choices as correct, despite any contrary evidence. This bias gives dissonance theory its predictive power, shedding light on otherwise puzzling irrational and destructive behavior
. A classical example of this idea (and the origin of the expression \"sour grapes\") is expressed in the fable The Fox and the Grapes by Aesop (ca. 620–564 BCE). In the story, a fox sees some high-hanging grapes and wishes to eat them. When the fox is unable to think of a way to reach them, he surmises that the grapes are probably not worth eating, as they must not be ripe or that they are sour. This example follows a pattern: one desires something, finds it unattainable, and reduces one\'s dissonance by criticizing it. Jon Elster calls this pattern \"adaptive preference formation.\"[1]
The \"buyer\'s remorse\" thing fits quite well, but blind denial does not.
Feb 17, 2011 at 06:50 PM
Previous versions of denoir's message #9326682 « Zeiss tested on DXOmark »
