Mistakes Were Made, but Not By Me, by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson

1467 Words3 Pages

In Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson's book, "Mistakes were made, (but not by me)" Travis and Aronson explain why humans feel the need to justify themselves when they make a mistake of fail, and why a phenomena know as "Cognitive dissonance" according to the authors, "The engine of self-justification". In short, "Mistakes were made, (but not by me)" should be read by everyone because Tavris and Aronson prove their argument cogently, they have an effective writing style, and their ideas reflect issues from the wider world. Aronson and Tavris begin the book by explaining that the engine of self-justification is called "cognitive dissonance" and that we all have the impulse to justify our actions and motives. "Cognitive dissonance" is described as "A state of tension that occurs whenever a person holds two cognitions (ideas, attitudes, beliefs) that are physiologically inconsistent" (Aronson and Tavris, 13) " Plenty of things cause us to justify ourselves including memory, clinical judgement, and our blind spots. As it turns out, many of us justify our actions using our memory. When we get out memories wrong, it's not usually because we lying, but because we are self-justifying ourselves. All humans add little details to our stories to make them interesting or even embellish it with lots of dramatic details. We justify a little white lie added to our story and soon may think it was actually part of our story. Memory relieves dissonance by selectively causing us to forget conflicting information about our lives. This system helps us make sense of our place in the world, and becomes even more powerful when it's motivated by the need to keep our self- concept consistent, preserve our self-esteem, and th... ... middle of paper ... ...nd friends to get out of problems caused by self-justification. Therefore, educating people about cognitive dissonance can benefit everyone, teaching us to recognize that we all are flawed. Throughout this book, the authors provided an enjoyable and understandable reading experience for everyone by fully proving their argument, by using different techniques to add style to their writing, and by making the skills of avoiding cognitive dissonance useful to everyone. All of these elements provided the writers with an interesting way to state their argument and to make their position on the topic be known. Their use of outside sources such as facts, statistics, quotes, and anecdotes, gave the book an interesting feel, and made the writing come to life. All of these things prove that "Mistakes were made (but not by me)" should be read by everyone.

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