--Original published at Lynsey Wissler's Blog

Week 12 First Impression

Option 2-Cognitive Dissonance

Lynsey Wissler

A time in my life when I experienced a change in beliefs due to cognitive dissonance was in school. I did not necessarily change my entire belief system but I changed my behavior to suit the environment. I did this because of something that I temporarily believed to be true. In middle school and even some in high school, I knew what I believed. I had a strong sense of God in my family and was raised in a very Christian home. However, in the craziness of middle school and trying to fit in, having a strong faith was not always the most popular thing. I thought that people would not like me if they knew what I believed and if I did not act like everyone else. Although I did not change what I believed,  I definitely did not act as though I believed it and I certainly did not talk about it. I pretended faith was not a strong part of my life and changed my behavior to act like that was true. I believed that if no one knew my true beliefs I would have more friends. As I got older and realized that my faith was who I am I became more confident and decided that it did not matter. I also realized that the people I was with did not care about my religious beliefs and in fact liked me because of it. I did not experience a full change in beliefs but for a short period of time, I believed that having a strong faith was not okay and that you should hide it. That idea led to my behavior change. Now that I am older I realized that what you believe is who you are and I think that that also would be a change in my beliefs due to cognitive dissonance.

I think that not necessarily promoting cognitive dissonance but having the opportunity for it is a good idea. Allowing people to know that change is good and opinion change is also good is something that could really benefit us as a society. If people would open their minds to change there would be less hate and feuds in this world today. Avoiding cognitive dissonance I think would be like hiding something and burying it under the rug just because you already have an opinion on it. Exposing yourself to other situations and learning new things to change and “update” your opinions is how we grow and discover who we are.

--Original published at Site Title

IAT tests can show bias that you are not aware of. I chose to take 2 of the online today and they were actually pretty cool. They were given to me at random and both ended up being about differences between men and women. The first was about the association between men and women, and sport and dance. Results showed that I have a strong automatic association of men with sports and women with dance. While consciously, I don’t really believe that sports are for boys and dance is for girls, I can see where the association comes from. I play sports with all boys, the sports I watch are all boys and even sports video games are all boys. I believe that is probably the basis for that association. The second test was about the association between men and women and leading and supporting. This time the test showed a slight automatic association of men with leading and women with supporting. This one made more sense to me than the first. When I saw the results, I thought of how I handle conflicts that come up. If something happened and I needed comfort or emotional support, I would go to my mom or a girlfriend. If I needed a solution or something fixed, I was going straight to my dad. I never really gave it too much thought but after taking that test, all of that made sense. I can see this being used for a lot of things. For college students, it could be used in making a decision to pick a major or minor. Maybe the student has an unconscious preference to one or the other that the test can show. It could have the same use in your career when it comes to picking jobs. If you ever become a boss you could use it to find certain unconscious biases of people in the workplace. For example, the test could be used to see if people have negative biases towards their bosses/managers. You could use that information to make the workplace a little more comfortable.

--Original published at Site Title

Cognitive dissonance has been a prominent feeling in communication since its early development. Everyone has the privilege of free thought, yet there is a frequent need in modern civilization to say the things we need to say in order to gain something. While this may not always mean downright lying, it can still bring an inauthentic result.

An example of cognitive dissonance in my own life is actually what was a long-term experience in my life and education growing up. I grew up in the Catholic Church and never shared the same beliefs with the people around me. However, my entire social environment (my school, my church community, and my family) was Roman Catholic. I essentially had no non-Catholic social outlet until the ninth grade, therefore I had to convince my environment that I shared the same beliefs. This led me to experience cognitive dissonance daily, as my responses to questions even in class often needed to acknowledge the existence and role of God. If I did not incorporate religion into the way I communicated, there was a major social risk. Therefore, cognitive dissonance became a constant in my upbringing.

I personally think that cognitive dissonance is ultimately a positive thing, since it leads to a better sense of control when we speak. If we were not to feel that discomfort, we may end up saying something that could compromise whatever gain there would be from giving the needed response, regardless of whether or not that answer feels true to ourselves. I wouldn’t go as far as to say we should promote cognitive dissonance, but I would say we should promote strategic communication, as there are many benefits from it in our careers. Cognitive dissonance is not as deliberate as strategic communication or decision making, as that state of discomfort occurs on its own. Though we are rarely conscious of it, cognitive dissonance serves a great purpose.

--Original published at Sarah's Insight

This week, I chose to take two Implicit Association Tests (IATs) and talk about my experience with them and how I feel about my results.

I chose to take the sexuality and Race IATs. At first, I was asked a bunch of demographic questions like my race, ethnicity, sexuality, birthday, and level of education. Once I answered all 13 questions (which were not required), the tests began. I started with the sexuality test. At first I was shown a list of good words, bad words, “straight people” (a man and a woman), and “gay people” (either two men or two girls). Then, I was required to go through 7 series of words and images and sort them into the correct category as fast as possible. The E button was pressed when i saw something good, the I button was pressed when I saw something bad. As the test went on, I had to sort specific things into specific categories. I did mess up a few times trying to go as fast as I could. The Race Test was the same procedure, except slightly harder when show photos of black and white people. The pictures where gray so it was difficult for me to decipher which race was which.

My results were not shocking. When taking the tests it was easy to tell which way my results would go when I messed up. These tests could be useful for students my age who are confused and not sure how they feel, but I do not think that they are totally reliable because of how fast you have to select your choices and because they make it confusing by switching which button means what category.