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

THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 22

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.

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).

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.

 

Sources:  

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

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

THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 8

Why is a bodhi tree, a type of fig tree, known as the “tree of enlightenment”?

Subject:  Enlightenment - Buddha and the Bodhi Tree

Event: Bodhi Day

 

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves. -Buddha

Siddhartha Gautama (560-380 BCE) was a prince who lived in northern India.  In line to be the next king, Siddhartha lived a life of wealth and luxury. In his twenties, however, he became discontented and left home to seek enlightenment.  He spent six years living a life of austerity and meditation; however, he still did not find the enlightenment he was looking for.  

 

Finally, one day he resolved to sit under a bodhi tree and not get up or leave until he had achieved enlightenment. At dawn, on what traditionally is celebrated on December 8, Siddhartha experienced the Great Awakening and became Buddha (which means “the enlightened one”).

                                                                Image by Amazon_Green from Pixabay 

For the next forty-five years, Buddha taught his disciples what he had discovered while meditating under the bodhi tree, his Four Noble Truths:  first, that suffering is an innate and unavoidable part of life; second, that desire and craving are the cause of suffering; third, that letting go of desire and craving is the key to overcoming suffering; fourth, that following the Middle Way -- a path that is neither overly indulgent nor overly ascetic -- is the prescription necessary for overcoming suffering.  The Middle Way is also known as the Eightfold Path:  right understanding, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration (1).

 

In his book The Happiness Hypothesis, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt points out Buddha’s brilliant metaphor for understanding our divided self, the tension within our mind between our chaotic desires, our emotions, and our conscious, rational self.  To illustrate this, Buddha asks us to imagine our mind as a wild elephant:

In days gone by this mind used to stray wherever selfish desire or lust or pleasure would lead it.  Today this mind does not stray and is under the harmony of control, even as a wild elephant is controlled by a trainer. (2)

 

Later in his book, Haidt explains this metaphor into his well known elephant and the rider metaphor (See THINKER’S ALMANAC - September 22 ).

 

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is the significance of the bodhi tree in Buddhism, and what are the Four Noble Truths?

Challenge - Buddha’s Words of Wisdom:  Do some research on quotations by Buddha.  When you find one you like, write it out.  Then, explain why you think it provides wisdom and insight.

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

December 8, 65 BC: Today is the birthday in 65 BC of Roman lyrical poet and satirist Horace.  On this day we express our gratitude to Horace for a single word -- sesquipedalian, which means “a long word” or “a person known for using long words.”  Horace penned his verse in Latin.  In his Ars Poetica (The Art of Poetry) he wrote the following:  Proicit ampullas et sesquipedalia verba, which translates, “He throws aside his paint pots and his words that are a foot and a half long.”  Combining the Latin roots sesqu- (one and a half) and ped (a foot), this adjective provides the perfect slightly exaggerated image for words that are wide.  Like many English words derived from Latin, especially many of the longer ones, sesquipedalian was borrowed in the seventeenth century (1).

Sources:

1-Bassham, Gregory. The Philosophy Book. New York:  Sterling, 2016: 24.

2-Haidt, Jonathan. The Happiness Hypothesis. Basic Books, 2006: 2. 

3-http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-ses1.htm

THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 8

Subject:  Enlightenment - Buddha and the Bodhi Tree

Event: Bodhi Day

 

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves. -Buddha

Siddhartha Gautama (560-380 BCE) was a prince who lived in northern India.  In line to be the next king, Siddhartha lived a life of wealth and luxury. In his twenties, however, he became discontented and left home to seek enlightenment.  He spent six years living a life of austerity and meditation; however, he still did not find the enlightenment he was looking for.  

 

Finally, one day he resolved to sit under a bodhi tree and not get up or leave until he had achieved enlightenment. At dawn, on what traditionally is celebrated on December 8, Siddhartha experienced the Great Awakening and became Buddha (which means “the enlightened one”).

 

For the next forty-five years, Buddha taught his disciples what he had discovered while meditating under the bodhi tree, his Four Noble Truths:  first, that suffering is an innate and unavoidable part of life; second, that desire and craving are the cause of suffering; third, that letting go of desire and craving is the key to overcoming suffering; fourth, that following the Middle Way -- a path that is neither overly indulgent nor overly ascetic -- is the prescription necessary for overcoming suffering.  The Middle Way is also known as the Eightfold Path:  right understanding, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration (1).

 

In his book The Happiness Hypothesis, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt points out Buddha’s brilliant metaphor for understanding our divided self, the tension within our mind between our chaotic desires, our emotions, and our conscious, rational self.  To illustrate this, Buddha asks us to imagine our mind as a wild elephant:

In days gone by this mind used to stray wherever selfish desire or lust or pleasure would lead it.  Today this mind does not stray and is under the harmony of control, even as a wild elephant is controlled by a trainer. (2)

 

Later in his book, Haidt explains this metaphor into his well-known elephant and the rider metaphor (See THINKER’S ALMANAC - September 22 ).

Challenge - Buddha’s Words of Wisdom:  Do some research on quotations by Buddha.  When you find one you like, write it out.  Then, explain why you think it provides wisdom and insight.

Sources:

1-Bassham, Gregory. The Philosophy Book. New York:  Sterling, 2016: 24.

2-Haidt, Jonathan. The Happiness Hypothesis. Basic Books, 2006: 2. 

THINKER'S ALMANAC - December 5

Why do some people mistakenly believe that Benjamin Franklin was the president of the United States?

 

Subject: False Memory - The Mandela Effect

Event:  Death of Nelson Mandela, 2013

 

In my country we go to prison first and then become President. -Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela, the former president of South Africa, died on this day in 2013.  Before he died, however, a number of people were under the incorrect presumption that he had died while being held as a political prisoner in South Africa in the 1980s.  

                                                            Image by Ben Kerckx from Pixabay 

One person who realized her error was Fiona Broome.  In 2009, she was at a conference and realized that she was not alone in her belief that Mandela had died in prison.  Many of the people she talked to at the conference shared her memory of Mandela’s death.  

Shocked by the phenomenon of so many people being so wrong about a shared memory, Broome decided to publish a website to document other instances of what she called the Mandela effect.

Just as individuals can form false memories, groups of people can form collective false memories.  Psychologists believe this happens because of a concept known as “confabulation”: the process by which we produce false memories unconsciously without any intention of deceiving anyone. As we attempt to recall a memory, we cannot recall everything, so we confabulate by filling in the gaps of our memory with details that feel correct but that are not entirely accurate.  When we confabulate, we’re not lying; instead, we generate false memories without any intent to deceive anyone, genuinely believing we have recalled the memory correctly.

For example, many people remember the famous Darth Vader line from The Empire Strikes Back as “Luke, I am your father.”  However, Vader actually says “No, I am your father.”  It’s a small difference; however, thanks to the Mandela effect, the wrong version of the movie line has become the standard line that people quote.

Try this trivia question:  Was Alexander Hamilton ever President of the United States?  

The answer is no; however, many will falsely claim that he was.  This makes sense when you think about how our memories are organized.  We encode our memories using categories and associations called schemas.  Since Hamilton fits well in the Founding Fathers/Presidents category of our memories, we might mistakenly believe that he actually was president.  This is the same false cognitive leap that some people make with Benjamin Franklin:  because he played a large role in the founding of the United States, because he is a distinctive voice in American history, and because we see his face on U.S. currency, we might believe he was president.  Franklin, however, never served as president.

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  What is the Mandela Effect, and why is it named after the former South African president?

Challenge - What’s in a Name?: Another well-known psychological effect, named for a famous person, is the “Benjamin Franklin Effect.”  Do some research on the specifics of this effect.  Explain what it is and what it has to do with Benjamin Franklin.

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

December 5, 1901:  Today is the birthday of Walt Disney, who was born in Chicago in 1901.  In 1928 he introduced the world to Mickey Mouse in the animated feature Steamboat Willie.  Disney revolutionized animation, mixing sound and color to produce full-length feature films based on classic children’s stories like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  For Disney, fantasy on the big screen was not enough.  He also pioneered the fantasy-themed family vacation when he opened Disneyland in California in 1955 (2). Disney was a man who paid attention to details, and he knew that the appearance of his characters as well as their names mattered.  In the 1930s, for example, when Disney was adapting the Brothers Grimm’s Snow White, he made a list of 47 potential names for the dwarfs, which included Awful, Baldy, Dirty, and Hoppy (3).  In case you can’t remember the names that made the final cut, they are Bashful, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, and Doc. As a film producer, Disney won 22 Academy Awards, far more than anyone else.  Disney died in 1966, but his name lives on.  The Walt Disney Company, the small animation company he founded on October 16, 1923, has grown into the world’s second largest media conglomerate.

Sources:

1-Cuncic, Arlin. “What Is the Mandela Effect?” Verywellmind.com 17 September 2020.

2-Gottlieb, Agnes Hooper, Henry Gottlieb, Barbara Bowers, and Brent Bowers. 1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking the Men and Women Who Shaped the Millennium. New York: Kodansha International, 1998.

3-http://www.listsofnote.com/2012/03/47-dwarfs.html

THINKER'S ALMANAC - May 22

How did the Wright Brothers decide which brother, Orville or Wilbur, would be the pilot on their historic first flight? 

Subject:  Invention - The Wright Brothers

Event:  The Wright Brothers granted a patent for their flying machine, 1906

It wasn’t luck that made them fly; it was hard work and common sense; they put their whole heart and soul and all their energy into an idea and they had the faith. -David McCullough

On this day in 1906, Orville and Wilbur Wright were granted a patent for their flying machine.

                                                                    Image by WikiImages from Pixabay 

Neither brother earned a high school diploma, yet both were mechanically gifted.  Prior to working in flight, their passion was bicycles, which became a craze at the end of the 19th century.  After passionately participating in the sport and becoming experts in bicycle mechanics and repair, they opened a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio in 1892.

Four years later, Wilbur happened to read an article about aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal, who had died on a test flight of one of his gliders.  The article fueled Wilbur’s imagination and soon both he and his brother were dreaming of being the first to fly.

Despite the fact that they lacked either the aviation expertise or the experience to be competitive, the brothers nevertheless were audacious enough to enter the race to be the first in flight.  Rather than worry about how to get an aircraft off the ground, the brothers began instead by learning how to fly, first by building kites and then by building gliders.  Moving from Ohio to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the brothers took advantage of the strongest winds in the U.S. as well as the sand dunes which allowed them to both get airborne and land safely on the soft beach sands.  Applying their knowledge of bicycle technology to their gliders, the brothers were able to perfect a design over time that allowed them to both fly significant distances and to maintain control for maneuvering the glider.

Finally, after learning to fly and after creating a suitable glider, they were prepared to add the features needed to get their plane off the ground. Their eventual success came from their ability to design both their own propellers and their own custom engine.

With just five witnesses on the ground at Kitty Hawk on December 17, 1903, Orville successfully flew the Wright Brothers’ flying machine for twelve seconds, covering a distance of 120 feet.  He earned the right to be the first to fly by virtue of a coin toss.  Three more flights were completed that day, the longest, with Wilbur at the helm, covered 852 feet in 59 seconds. Thus, two brothers, who lacked neither advanced engineering knowledge nor extensive aeronautic experience, were able to privately fund the most important do-it-yourself project in history and give birth to the modern aviation age (1).

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  How long (time and distance) was the first flight? How are Orville and Wilbur Wright excellent examples of the growth mindset in action?

Challenge - Creative Partners:  Do some research on other creative partners from history.  When you find one pair that’s interesting, write a report about how these two use teamwork to collaborate and create new ideas.

Sources:

1-Green, Robert.  Mastery. New York:  Penguin Books, 2013:  215-219.