THINKER'S ALMANAC - May 8

How did Leon Festinger’s experiment, where he paid people to lie, help us to better understand how we lie to ourselves?

Subject:  Cognitive Dissonance - Boring Task

Event:  Birthday of Psychologist Leon Festinger, 1919

Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief. -Frantz Fanon

Today is the birthday of American psychologist Leon Festinger, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1919.  In 1959, Festinger and his colleague James Carlsmith completed a groundbreaking study that helps us understand how we sometimes lie to ourselves rather than face uncomfortable truths.  When our conflicting beliefs or actions come into conflict, we experience what Festinger called cognitive dissonance.  This internal conflict results in discomfort that moves us to resolve the tension, which sometimes results in justifying or rationalizing our behavior.  For example, imagine a man who is late for his doctor's appointment.  Running from his car to the doctor’s office, he drops a candy wrapper and does not stop to pick it up.  Because he sees himself as someone who is environmentally responsible, he experiences cognitive dissonance.  His act of littering is not consistent with the image he has of himself as a non-litterer.  To resolve this internal conflict, he rationalizes his actions, saying to himself, “It’s just a small piece of garbage, and I’m sure that the doctor’s office has someone who routinely picks up the trash in the parking lot.”

 

In Festinger’s classic study he attempted to make the abstract concept of cognitive dissonance more concrete by demonstrating its effects empirically.  He began by engaging 71 subjects in a task that was intentionally designed to be monotonous:   turning pegs on a wooden pegboard for one hour. After all subjects completed their hour of the boring task, they were each paid either $1 or $20 to persuade a waiting participant that the boring task was actually fun.  Finally, the subjects were asked by a researcher to give a truthful evaluation of the task.  Results revealed that those subjects who were paid $1 rated the task as fun, while those who were paid $20 more accurately described the task as dull.

                                                            Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay 

The study was designed to create cognitive dissonance in all 71 participants:  each one participated in what was clearly a boring task.  Their belief in the boring task, however, conflicted with their action of telling someone else that the task was fun.  Participants who were paid $20 had little trouble honestly evaluating the task.  They had been fairly compensated for telling a white lie and as a result, experienced less motivation to rationalize.  The participants who had been paid only $1, however, were in a different situation.  Rather than truthfully evaluate the task as boring, they found it easier to alter their original belief and to say that the task was fun (1).

Long before Festinger’s experiment, Benjamin Franklin recorded a personal anecdote in his Autobiography (1793), recounting how he was able to justify eating fish despite the fact that he had previously resolved not to.  He never uses the term cognitive dissonance; nevertheless, he has the metacognitive insight to recognize and laugh at his own rationalization:

I believe I have omitted mentioning that, in my first voyage from Boston, being becalmed off Block Island, our people set about catching cod, and hauled up a great many. Hitherto I had stuck to my resolution of not eating animal food, and on this occasion I considered, with my master Tryon, the taking every fish as a kind of unprovoked murder, since none of them had or ever could do us any injury that might justify the slaughter. All this seemed very reasonable. But I had formerly been a great lover of fish, and when this came hot out of the frying-pan, it smelt admirably well. I balanced some time between principle and inclination, till I recollected that, when the fish were opened, I saw smaller fish taken out of their stomachs. Then thought I, "If you eat one another, I don't see why we mayn't eat you." So I dined upon cod very heartily, and continued to eat with other people, returning only now and then occasionally to a vegetable diet. So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do. (2)

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason: What is “Cognitive Dissonance”? How did Benjamin Franklin’s Cognitive Dissonance lead him to rationalize his decision to eat fish?

Challenge - Being Honest With Yourself:  Just as Ben Franklin described the internal conflict he experienced when his beliefs conflicted with his actions, try to remember a time when you experienced cognitive dissonance.  What happened, and how did you resolve the conflict?  

Sources:

1-McLeod, Saul.  “Cognitive Dissonance.”  Simply Psycholology.com 5 Feb. 2018.

2-The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

THINKER'S ALMANAC - February 21

How does Bloom’s Taxonomy give us six different ways to learn a concept?

Subject:  Thinking/Learning - Bloom’s Taxonomy 

Event:  Birthday of Benjamin Bloom, 1913

Creativity follows mastery, so mastery of skills is the first priority for young talent. -Benjamin Bloom

Today is the birthday of American psychologist Benjamin Bloom.  In 1956, Bloom created what has become the most influential model of how people learn and how people think.  Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, which was created over sixty years ago, remains one of the most useful tools for teachers and students to articulate the ways in which the brain processes learning, beginning with foundational learning and moving to higher levels of critical thinking.

Image by Rosy / Bad Homburg / Germany from Pixabay

The idea behind Bloom’s Taxonomy is to help teachers and students advance their thinking and learning beyond superficial levels.  By classifying thinking into six categories, the model makes the thinking and learning process less abstract, showing how students can process their learning in different ways and at different levels.  In addition, the taxonomy provides a scaffolding that provides a firm foundation for learning as well as a safe structure for reaching higher levels of thinking and learning.

Knowledge – Remember/Define/Memorize: This is the most fundamental level of learning something.  It is the recall level where students memorize a fact, a definition, or a concept.  If, for example, you were studying the concept of cognitive dissonance, you might write down and memorize the definition.

Comprehension – Understand/Explain/Paraphrase:  This is where students move beyond just memorization by explaining what they know in their own words, by summarizing main ideas, and by illustrating what they know with examples.  This also involves comparing, contrasting, classifying, inferring, and predicting.  Engaging with the learning in this way, moves the learning from short term memory to long term memory, making it more likely that the learner will be able to master what they are learning.  If, for example, you were studying cognitive dissonance, you might demonstrate your understanding of the term by explaining what cognitive dissonance is in your own words and by giving a specific example to illustrate it.

Application – Use/Demonstrate/Sketch: This is where students use what they have learned by applying it to a new situation or context.  Using the knowledge takes it from the theoretical level to the practical application level, making the learning both more meaningful and more practical.  If, for example, you were studying cognitive dissonance, you might apply your knowledge of it by explaining how cognitive dissonance might relate to a situation in which a person buys a new car.

Analysis – Examine/Classify/Dissect: This is where students examine and break information into parts or classifications.  It involves looking at causes and effects, making inferences, and supporting generalizations with evidence.   If, for example, you were studying cognitive dissonance, you might analyze it by identifying the specific causes and effects that make it happen.

Evaluation – Appraise/Argue/Judge: This is where students form and defend opinions about what they are learning.  It involves making judgments based on criteria and supporting those judgments with valid evidence.   If, for example, you were studying cognitive dissonance, you might evaluate it by discussing whether or not the overall effects of cognitive dissonance on individuals are positive or negative.

Synthesis – Create/Design/Compose:  This is where students use their knowledge and learning to create something new and original.  It involves combining elements into new patterns or generating alternative ideas or solutions.  For example, if you were studying cognitive dissonance, you might write a research report on the term where you use evidence from two or three different sources to explain your position on why it is an important concept.  You might also develop your own graphic to illustrate the cause and effect relationships related to the idea.

Notice that each of the six different levels of the taxonomy requires the learner to engage at deeper and deeper levels with the learning, integrating that knowledge in different ways, ways that are successively more challenging, ways that require more and more cognitive engagement, which then leads to higher order thinking and higher levels of mastery.  

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What are six different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, and how does the Taxonomy make learning less abstract and help push students to higher order thinking?

Challenge - Learning in Bloom:  How might you create a lesson that teaches a basic abstract concept in a way that students truly learn it?  Take an abstract concept that you know well, such as capitalism, photosynthesis, or rhetoric, and write a lesson plan that involves six different activities that students will do — at each of the six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.  The goal is to help students move from basic understanding to higher order thinking. 

ALSO ON THIS DAY:  

February 21, 1962:  American author David Foster Wallis was born on this day. In 2005, Wallis presented the commencement address entitled “This Is Water”  to the graduating class at Kenyon College, a liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio.

Wallace began his address with an anecdote:

There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”

As Wallis continued his address, he challenged the graduates to approach their lives philosophically by thinking and reflecting consciously, paying attention to the obvious realities that, though seemingly obvious, are -- like water to the fish -- often the hardest to see.  The freedom provided by education, according to Wallace, is the ability to choose to pay attention and see what is hidden in plain sight.

Sources:

1-Bloom, B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook I: The Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay Co Inc, 1956.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - March 26

What lesson about human thinking can we learn from a slave who lived in the 5th century B.C.?

Subject:  Cognitive Dissonance - “The Fox and the Grapes”

Event:  William Caxton publishes first English translation of Aesop’s Fables, 1484

Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder. -Thomas Aquinas

On this day in 1484, William Caxton published the first English translation of Aesop’s Fables. Born in 1422, Caxton established the first printing press in England and not only printed books but also translated them into English from French, Latin, and Dutch. Caxton’s English translation of the fables was translated from French.

The Greek storyteller Aesop lived in the 5th century B.C. Although we know few facts about his life, we do have legends that report he was a slave who eventually won his freedom.  

One legend tells of his ability to think on his feet and his skill for constructing analogies in story form. One day, walking with his master, the philosopher Xanthus, Aesop came upon a gardener.  The gardener asked Xanthus for some gardening advice, complaining that the weeds in the garden always grow faster than the fruits and vegetables he plants.  Xanthus is a bit flummoxed by the question, but answers that the only explanation is divine providence.  After 

hearing Xanthus’ answer, Aesop laughs, so Xanthus challenges him to give his answer to the question.  Aesop explains that nature is like a woman who has been married twice.  In her first marriage, she had children who she raised and cared for; in her second marriage, however, she inherited stepchildren from her husband's previous marriage.  In Aesop's analogy, the weeds are given special and loving care as Mother Earth’s biological children, while the gardener's crops are her step-children.  As a result, they receive less care and attention. After hearing Aesop’s explanation, the gardener nods with understanding and shows his gratitude to Aesop by giving him a basket of vegetables.  

Today we are familiar with many of Aesop’s Fables because of their popularity as children’s stories, such as “The Ant and the Grasshopper,” “The Tortoise and the Hare,” and “The Lion and the Mouse.”  The Fables are not just for children, however.  Careful examination of their themes will provide profound insights into human thinking and behavior.  One specific example is the “Fox and the Grapes,” which identifies the natural human inclination for rationalization.

                                                            Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay 

Driven by hunger, a fox tried to reach some grapes hanging high on the vine but was unable to, although he leaped with all his strength. As he went away, the fox remarked 'Oh, you aren't even ripe yet! I don't need any sour grapes.' People who speak disparagingly of things that they cannot attain would do well to apply this story to themselves.

Cognitive scientists recognize the fox’s behavior in this story as classic cognitive dissonance:   the internal mental conflict that occurs when our thoughts or beliefs run counter to our actions, behaviors, or new information.  

We seek out consistency when it comes to our attitudes and behaviors, just as the fox likes to see himself as a capable hunter of grapes.  When we encounter dissonance, or lack of agreement between our thoughts and actions, we become uncomfortable and seek to excuse or rationalize our behavior.  The fox, therefore, is better able to maintain his image of himself as a capable hunter by rationalizing that the grapes were sour.

Being right feels much better than being wrong, so we tend to see what we want to see.  We like it when our thoughts are consistent and balanced; however, like the fox, the world presents us with curveballs and contradictory information that can throw our thinking out of balance.  When we encounter this “dissonance,” it’s often easier to “explain away” or rationalize than to think deeply and reasonably.  After all, thinking is hard work, so we often avoid it. 

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is cognitive dissonance? How does the fox in Aesop's fable demonstrate cognitive dissonance?

Also on this Day:

March 26, 1892:  On this day, American poet Walt Whitman died at his home in Camden, New Jersey.  Whitman was the first great poet of the United States and was a pioneer of free verse, which abandons traditional poetic forms and meter. In the 1989 film Dead Poets Society, English teacher Mr. Keating (played by Robin Williams) frequently quotes Whitman, as he does in the following short speech to his students about why they must read and study poetry:

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. 

Challenge - Show Me the Dissonance:  The psychologist who first identified and named cognitive dissonance was Leon Festinger (1919-1989).  Do a bit of research to discover that specific experiment Festinger carried out to empirically demonstrate the reality of cognitive dissonance in the thinking of real people.  What was the experiment, and how did it reveal cognitive dissonance?

Sources:

1-Gibbs, Laura. “Life of Aesop: The Wise Fool and the Philosopher.” Journey to the Sea online magazine 1 March 2009.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - March 26

What lesson about human thinking can we learn from a slave who lived in the 5th century B.C.?

Subject:  Cognitive Dissonance - “The Fox and the Grapes”

Event:  William Caxton publishes first English translation of Aesop’s Fables, 1484

Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder. -Thomas Aquinas

On this day in 1484, William Caxton published the first English translation of Aesop’s Fables. Born in 1422, Caxton established the first printing press in England and not only printed books but also translated them into English from French, Latin, and Dutch. Caxton’s English translation of the fables was translated from French.

The Greek storyteller Aesop lived in the 5th century B.C. Although we know few facts about his life, we do have legends that report he was a slave who eventually won his freedom.  

One legend tells of his ability to think on his feet and his skill for constructing analogies in story form. One day, walking with his master, the philosopher Xanthus, Aesop came upon a gardener.  The gardener asked Xanthus for some gardening advice, complaining that the weeds in the garden always grow faster than the fruits and vegetables he plants.  Xanthus is a bit flummoxed by the question, but answers that the only explanation is divine providence.  After 

hearing Xanthus’ answer, Aesop laughs, so Xanthus challenges him to give his answer to the question.  Aesop explains that nature is like a woman who has been married twice.  In her first marriage, she had children who she raised and cared for; in her second marriage, however, she inherited stepchildren from her husband's previous marriage.  In Aesop's analogy, the weeds are given special and loving care as Mother Earth’s biological children, while the gardener's crops are her step-children.  As a result, they receive less care and attention. After hearing Aesop’s explanation, the gardener nods with understanding and shows his gratitude to Aesop by giving him a basket of vegetables.  

Today we are familiar with many of Aesop’s Fables because of their popularity as children’s stories, such as “The Ant and the Grasshopper,” “The Tortoise and the Hare,” and “The Lion and the Mouse.”  The Fables are not just for children, however.  Careful examination of their themes will provide profound insights into human thinking and behavior.  One specific example is the “Fox and the Grapes,” which identifies the natural human inclination for rationalization.

Driven by hunger, a fox tried to reach some grapes hanging high on the vine but was unable to, although he leaped with all his strength. As he went away, the fox remarked 'Oh, you aren't even ripe yet! I don't need any sour grapes.' People who speak disparagingly of things that they cannot attain would do well to apply this story to themselves.

Cognitive scientists recognize the fox’s behavior in this story as classic cognitive dissonance:   the internal mental conflict that occurs when our thoughts or beliefs run counter to our actions, behaviors, or new information.  

We seek out consistency when it comes to our attitudes and behaviors, just as the fox likes to see himself as a capable hunter of grapes.  When we encounter dissonance, or lack of agreement between our thoughts and actions, we become uncomfortable and seek to excuse or rationalize our behavior.  The fox, therefore, is better able to maintain his image of himself as a capable hunter by rationalizing that the grapes were sour.

Being right feels much better than being wrong, so we tend to see what we want to see.  We like it when our thoughts are consistent and balanced; however, like the fox, the world presents us with curveballs and contradictory information that can throw our thinking out of balance.  When we encounter this “dissonance,” it’s often easier to “explain away” or rationalize than to think deeply and reasonably.  After all, thinking is hard work, so we often avoid it. 

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is cognitive dissonance, and how does the fable of “The Fox and the Grapes” illustrate it?

Challenge - Show Me the Dissonance:  The psychologist who first identified and named cognitive dissonance was Leon Festinger (1919-1989).  Do a bit of research to discover that specific experiment Festinger carried out to empirically demonstrate the reality of cognitive dissonance in the thinking of real people.  What was the experiment, and how did it reveal cognitive dissonance?

Sources:

1-Gibbs, Laura. “Life of Aesop: The Wise Fool and the Philosopher.” Journey to the Sea online magazine 1 March 2009.

THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 22

How did a failed doomsday prophecy in 1954 lead to an essential psychological insight into how humans rationalize failure?

Subject:  Cognitive Dissonance - The Seekers

Event: Dorothy Martin’s Prophecy, 1954

 

We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. -George Orwell

In 1954, psychologist Leon Festinger saw an intriguing headline in the newspaper:  “Prophecy From Planet Clarion Call to City:  Flee That Flood.”  The article explained the strange beliefs of a Chicago cult called the Seekers, led by housewife Dorothy Martin, who claimed to be receiving communications from the planet Clarion.  Based on these communications, Martin revealed that on December 21, 1954, the world would end.  Prior to the event, however, Martin also explained that aliens would come via flying saucers to collect her faithful followers and take them to safety on Clarion.

Assuming that Martin’s proclamations were incorrect, Festinger arranged for some of his students to infiltrate the Seekers in order to observe them up close.  Festinger was especially interested in how the group would react on this day, December 22, when they learned that the flying saucers did not arrive as scheduled and that the world did not end.

As Festinger expected, the morning of December 22 dawned without the arrival of any alien visitors.  Early that morning at 4:45 AM Martin called the Seekers together to deliver her latest message from Clarion.

Martin’s message totally reframed the Seekers’ situation, turning it from tragedy to triumph.  She proclaimed that because her people had shown how much faith, the earth had been spared:

 “…by his word have ye been saved -- for from the mouth of death have ye been delivered and at no time has there been such a force loosed upon the Earth.  Not since the beginning of time upon this Earth has there been such  force of Good and light as now floods this room.”

Festinger documented the story of the Seekers in his 1956 book When Prophecy Fails, and he called the phenomenon of clashing beliefs experienced by the Seekers cognitive dissonance.  And as he further explained, cognitive dissonance is a type of thinking all humans experience:  facing incompatible beliefs, we rationalize a situation or justify a failure. Who hasn’t, for example, gone on a diet one day and then gone on a junk food binge the next.  We might be disappointed with ourselves, but we are also capable of buoying our self esteem by rationalizing our behavior by explaining it away as a minor indiscretion.

                                                                    Image by Maddy Mazur from Pixabay 

To establish the reality of cognitive dissonance under experimental conditions, Festinger set up a study that he called “The Boring Task.”  It began by giving subjects an hour-long task:  simply turning pegs monotonously on a wooden board.  Once that task was completed, he offered half the subjects one dollar to tell the next person waiting to complete the task that it was fun and interesting.  The other half of the subjects were offered twenty dollars to tell the next person in line that the task was fun and interesting.  Finally, all participants were interviewed by researchers and asked what they really thought about the task.  The results showed that subjects who had been paid one dollar reported that the task was enjoyable, while subjects who were paid twenty dollars reported that the task was terribly dull.

Festinger interpreted the results as consistent with how ordinary people adjust their beliefs when faced with cognitive dissonance.  The people who were given just one dollar to lie experienced an uncomfortable clash of belief between their true feelings about the task being boring and the fact that they had told someone else it was fun.  This clash of beliefs was resolved by simply altering their beliefs and reporting that the task was actually fun.  In contrast, the people who were given twenty dollars felt no need to alter their beliefs because they had been fairly compensated to lie and thus felt no need to justify their actions (1).

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  How did Festinger’s boring task show that ordinary people experience cognitive dissonance?

Challenge - Franklin and the Fish:  In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin recounts the following incident.  Read it carefully, and explain how specifically Franklin experienced cognitive dissonance:

I believe I have omitted mentioning that , in my first voyage from Boston, being becalmed off Block Island, our people set about catching cod, and hauled up a great many. Hitherto I had stuck to my resolution of not eating animal food, and on this occasion I considered, with my master Tryon, the taking every fish as a kind of unprovoked murder, since none of them had or ever could do us any injury that might justify the slaughter. All this seemed very reasonable. But I had formerly been a great lover of fish, and when this came hot out of the frying-pan, it smelt admirably well. I balanced some time between principle and inclination, till I recollected that, when the fish were opened, I saw smaller fish taken out of their stomachs. Then thought I, "If you eat one another, I don't see why we mayn't eat you." So I dined upon cod very heartily, and continued to eat with other people, returning only now and then occasionally to a vegetable diet. So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.

 

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

December 22, 1944:  On this day in 1944, American soldiers of the 101 Airborne Division at the Belgian town of Bastogne were surrounded by German forces.  In what later became known as the Battle of the Bulge, the American forces were caught off guard when Hitler launched a surprise counteroffensive.  At 11:30 on the morning of December 22, German couriers with white flags arrived at the American lines, delivering a letter demanding the surrender of the Americans.  The acting commander of the 101st, Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe, read the letter.  After pausing for a moment to reflect and to ask for input from his subordinates, he scribbled the following laconic reply:

 

To the German commander:

 

Nuts!

 

The American commander

 

The German couriers spoke English, but they were puzzled by the general’s reply.  As U.S. officers escorted them back to the defensive line, they explained to the Germans that “nuts” meant the same thing as “go to hell.” The soldiers of the 101st continued to hold their ground under the attacks of the Germans for the four days that followed until the siege was finally broken with the arrival of U.S. tank forces of the Third Army, led by Lieutenant General George S. Patton. The laconic reply has a long military tradition that dates back to the Spartans of ancient Greece, who were known for their blunt statements and dry wit.  In fact, the word “laconic,” meaning “concise, abrupt” is a toponym originating from a region of Sparta known as Laconia.  In Spartan schools, for example, a boy whose reply to a question was too verbose was subject to being punished by having his thumb bitten by his teacher (3).  When Philip II of Macedon - father of Alexander the Great - invaded Greece in the third century BC, he sent the following threat to the Spartans:   “You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army into your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people, and raze your city."  The Spartan’s replied:  “If.”  (4).

 

Sources:  

1-Grimes, David Rober.  Good Thinking.  New York:  The Experiment, 2019.

2-The Electric Ben Franklin.  The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1793).

3-Cartledge, Paul.  Spartan Reflections. University of California Press, 2003:  85.

4-http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=laconic. https://www.army.mil/article/92856