Consider the bias “life is difficult” or “bad things always happen to me.” Not only will your memories be kept in line with these beliefs, but your actions will also be changed to support them. The mind actively pursues actions that support our beliefs and avoid cognitive dissonance.

On the other side, a bias of “people always like me” or “I easily achieve success” allows a person to see and take advantage of opportunities ignored by their more dour counterparts because success won’t cause any dissonance.

It’s hard enough to overcome our own mental barriers in order to admit mistakes, but to overcome societal ones is even harder. I agree, I think most people just want the truth, but it doesn’t seem like something we’re going to often get from our leaders / experts…

It’s so ironic to me because often what people most want is an honest acknowledgment that wrong has been done to them and a sincere apology for it. Yet that’s exactly what cognitive dissonance inhibits us from providing. I haven’t been able to find the referene for this, but I recall reading about a hospital system in one of the United States which began to encourage its physicians to apologize to patients and their families were they had made a mistake. This was partly in response to some change in the State’s laws that made it less likely that such apologies would be used to support lawsuits against the physician. The result, as I recall, was a significant reduction in physicians being sued. I really think we often just want the someone to honestly acknowledge and apologize for the harm that’s been done. Anyway, another interesting blog from you – Thanks.