Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive Dissonance is an uncomfortable sensation, akin to shame. You get it when you discover (or someone else discovers for you) an incongruity between your beliefs, your experiences, and/or your values.

Suppose you were in an argument where you felt pretty strongly about the topic. If your interlocutor then introduced a new fact, previously unknown to you, which put your position in serious doubt, you would experience the sensation of cognitive dissonance.

Cognitive dissonance is an important cognitive function. It presumably evolved so that humans, some of the time, would change their minds. The way an individual reacts to cognitive dissonance determines much about that individual's character. The default reaction to cognitive dissonance is defensiveness: "Shut up." The enlightened reaction to cognitive dissonance is curiosity: "How did I not perceive that defect in my character?"

The enlightened person changes his mind, over time, to achieve integrity. Cognitive dissonance and integrity are linked by a very short tether; cognitive dissonance generates the "smells" which put one on the track of what might be called "disintegrities".

In a mind with integrity, beliefs, experiences and values have been examined for the kinds of incongruities that produce cognitive dissonance. This examination soon tells; beliefs are amended and values adjusted to minimize incongruity. Persons of integrity have "mined out" the cognitive dissonance in their worldviews and minds. But this does require a habit of conscious, conscientious work over a long period of time, at least for me.

Persons who react defensively to cognitive dissonance are stupid.