Cognitive Dissonance
Definition
Cognitive dissonance is a term used in modern psychology to describe the feeling of discomfort when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting thoughts: ideas, beliefs, values or emotional reactions. In a state of dissonance, people may sometimes feel "disequilibrium": frustration, nausea, dread, guilt, anger, embarrassment, anxiety, etc.
Cause and Effects
Dissonance is created when your brain attempts to process information that is inconsistent with other information that it holds to be true. This can be as simple as the example of the color chart on the right or the much more difficult dissonance that results when information is received that is opposed to a person's fundamental beliefs.
Most people will avoid situations or information sources that give rise to feelings of uneasiness, or dissonance. If this uneasiness is not reduced by changing one's belief, the dissonance can be resolved by misperception, rejection or refutation of the information, seeking support from others who share the alternative beliefs, and attempting to persuade others.
Cognitive dissonance leads people to accept any information that affirms their already established opinions, rather than referencing material that contradicts them. For example, a person who is politically conservative will only read newspapers and watch news commentary that is from conservative news sources. This bias appears to be particularly apparent when faced with deeply held beliefs, i.e., when a person has 'high commitment' to his or her attitudes.
The process of attempting to eliminate cognitive dissonance is referred to as dissonance reduction. Many Message Believers deal with the dissonance created by William Branham's failed prophecies by avoiding websites like this. A number of Message Ministers have supported this approach by preaching that members of their churches should avoid the internet altogether.
Examples
UFO Cult
Leon Festinger, a social psychologist at the University of Minnesota who first coined the term "cognitive dissonance", related an account of the followers of a UFO cult as reality clashed with their fervent belief in an impending apocalypse.
In the summer of 1954, Festinger was reading the morning newspaper when he encountered a short article about Marion Keech, a housewife in suburban Minneapolis who was convinced that the apocalypse was coming. Keech had started getting messages from Sananda, an extra-terrestrial from the planet Clarion, a few years before, but now the messages were getting eerily specific. According to the alien, human civilization would be destroyed by a massive flood at midnight on December 20, 1954.
Keech’s prophecy soon gained a small band of followers. They trusted her messages, some of them quit their jobs and sold their homes. Her followers didn’t bother buying Christmas presents or making arrangements for New Years Eve, since nothing would exist by then.
Festinger immediately realized that Keech would make a great research subject. He decided to infiltrate the group by pretending to be a true believer. What Festinger wanted to study was the reaction of the cultist on December 21, when the world wasn’t destroyed and no spaceship appeared. Would Keech recant? What would happen when her prophesy failed?
On the night of December 20, Keech’s followers gathered in her home and waited for instructions from the aliens. Midnight inexorably approached. When the clock read 12:01 and there were still no aliens, the cultists began to worry. A few began to cry. The aliens had let them down. But then Keech received a new telegram from outer space, which she quickly transcribed on her notepad. “This little group sitting all night long had spread so much light,” the aliens told her, “that god saved the world from destruction. Not since the beginning of time upon this Earth has there been such a force of Good and light as now floods this room.” It was their stubborn faith that had prevented the apocalypse.
They faced acute cognitive dissonance: had they been the victim of a hoax? Had they donated their worldly possessions in vain? Most members chose to believe something less dissonant to resolve reality not meeting their expectations: they believed that the aliens had given earth a second chance, and the group was now empowered to spread the word that earth-spoiling must stop.
Although Keech’s predictions had been falsified, the group was now more convinced than ever that the aliens were real. The group dramatically increased their proselytism despite the failed prophecy, sending out press releases and recruiting new believers.
This is how they reacted to the dissonance of being wrong: by being more sure than ever that they were right. They were so committed to their beliefs – they had so much invested in the idea that the world would end – that dissonant facts made them double-down. It would be too painful to be wrong, and so they convinced themselves that they were right.
Smoking
Smoking is a common example of cognitive dissonance because it is widely accepted that cigarettes can cause lung cancer, and smokers must reconcile their habit with the desire to live long and healthy lives. In terms of the cognitive dissonance theory, the desire to live a long life is dissonant with the activity of doing something that is likely to shorten one's life.
The tension produced by these contradictory ideas can be reduced by quitting smoking, denying the evidence of lung cancer, or justifying one’s smoking. For example, a smoker could rationalize his or her behavior by concluding that everyone dies and so cigarettes do not actually change anything. Or a person could believe that smoking keeps one from gaining weight, which would also be unhealthy.
Dissonance Reduction
People want to harmony between their expectations and reality. When cognitive dissonance appears, they engage in a process termed "dissonance reduction", which can be achieved in one of three ways:
- (1) lowering the importance of one of the factors raising the concern,
- (2) adding or inventing new facts, or
- (3) changing one of the dissonant factors.
This bias sheds light on otherwise puzzling, irrational, and even destructive behavior.
Followers of William Branham's Message
Cognitive dissonance has been created in a number of people that have viewed the information on this website because dissonance results when they are confronted with information that is inconsistent with their beliefs.
We have been able to view the impact through email correspondence with message believers. Followers of William Branham's message are rarely prepared to actually put their beliefs under the microscope and actually examine them in the light of independent, objective analysis.
If the dissonance is not reduced by changing one's belief in the message, then message believers restore consonance through misperception (allowing the truth to be distorted by one's own perceptions); rejection or refutation of the information that we are presenting; seeking support from other message believers in rejecting the information presented on this website; and attempting to persuade others that the information that is contained on this website is wrong.
Examples include:
- The Municipal Bridge Vision - The fact that this vision took place when William Branham was a child is grounds for it being ignored, as he could have made a mistake. This ignores the fact that he said that it was fulfilled, and it is the fulfillment that creates the problem, i.e. it never happened.
- The Municipal Bridge Vision - This happened a long time ago and therefore it is likely that the deaths of the workers simply went unreported. This ignores the fact that the wives, parents and children of a group of 16 men that perished in a construction accident would not permit their memory to be forgotten. For that reason, the deaths in the construction of the Big Four Bridge are still remembered. A death of one person might be forgotten but not 16 men.
- African Vision - To avoid this issue, people will say that William Branham was referring to India, not Africa, even though he specifically mentions Durban, South Africa in the vision. Or another method of avoiding the implication of this failed vision is to state that well over 300,000 people have heard the tapes in South Africa thereby fulfilling the vision, although this again is an irrelevant rationalization.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt - To deal with this failed prophecy, followers of William Branham search out explanations that are rooted in conspiracy theory.