Carol Tavris

Why do people dodge responsibility when things fall apart? Why the parade of public figures unable to own up when they make mistakes? Why the endless marital quarrels over who is right? Why can we see hypocrisy in others but not in ourselves? Are we all liars? Or do we really believe the stories we tell? Renowned social psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson take a compelling look into how the brain is wired for self-justification. When we make mistakes, we must calm the cognitive dissonance that jars our feelings of self-worth. And so we create fictions that absolve us of responsibil.

Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions and Hurtful Acts

Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me)

Haley Park

Indeed, several experiments find that most people who have low self-esteem or a low estimate of their abilities do feel uncomforatble with dissonant successes and dismiss them as accidents or anomalies. 

(p.59) We take our own involvement in an issue as a source of accuracy and enlightenment ("I've felt strongly about gun control for years, therefore I know what I'm talking about"), but we regard such personal feelings on the part of others who hold different views as a source of bias( "She can't possibly be impoartial about gun control because she's felt strongly about it for years"). 

Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) quotes

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