Friday Reflection (No.34): Combatting Cognitive Dissonance on Social Issues We Care About
August 5, 2022
“Immigrants! We Get the Job Done!”
This track from the Hamilton mixtape makes me bounce AND moves my soul.1
The lyrics also point out a number of contradictory ideas that exist in society around immigrants, particularly in the United States:
“It's really astonishing that in a country founded by immigrants, ‘immigrant’ has somehow become a bad word.”
“I been scoping ya dudes, ya'll ain't been working like I do
I'll outwork you, it hurts you
You claim I'm stealing jobs though.”
These are examples of what social psychologist Leon Festinger coined as cognitive dissonance.2 The premise of this theory is that humans have a need to feel consistent in our thoughts, feelings and actions. Cognitive dissonance takes place when our words or actions are inconsistent with what we believe about ourselves.
For example, a person might think of themselves as a “kind” person and yet they yell at their employee out of frustration. Since this behavior is counter to their self-belief, they resolve the contradiction in their head with a thought like, “Well they deserved it because they lost a huge customer account.”3
The irony of this “resolution” is that it is irrational. A “kind” person can hold someone accountable without berating them and would want them to learn from the mistake versus feel blamed.
Other ways that we irrationally create consistency are by “discrediting a source of conflicting information, viewing problematic information from a different point of view, or using selective recall and leaving out conflicting aspects of information.”4
Underlying this effect are two incredibly powerful human motives: 1) the desire to feel right, and 2) the desire to feel good.
While cognitive dissonance can have averse impacts on our individual behavior, the cumulative effect of this bias in individuals can be devastating at a systemic level, particularly when it comes to social issues. Human inaction on the climate crisis is a clear example of this.5
The intent of this week’s reflection is not to point fingers but actually to explore my own cognitive dissonance in one particular area:
Two issues that are very important to me are immigrant rights and health access. As the son of a Cuban immigrant and having worked as a community activist and teacher in immigrant communities, in my head, I am deeply committed to making the world a better place for immigrants. In fact, nearly 1 in 4 children in the U.S. have an immigrant as a parent, which to me says, if we take care of immigrants, we are taking care of children. Moreover, I am inspired by the impact immigrants have had on the communities I care about…as the song says: “Immigrants get the job done.”
On the healthcare front, I’ve been an advisor to leaders in the industry for nearly 15 years. I’ve also benefitted greatly from health access - a life changing back surgery at two years old enabled me to be an active and healthy kid who was into sports, because it was caught early.6 And, I deeply admire entrepreneurs like Gil Addo who are building businesses that are closing gaps in health access.7
What I’ve realized is that my tacit acceptance of the injustices that take place at the intersection of these two areas, immigrant rights and health access, is a good example of cognitive dissonance.
In my own backyard, New York City, more than 1 out of 3 immigrants who required access to healthcare in the last year did NOT receive it.8 Though this fact is upsetting to me, I’ve taken almost no action to do something about it. In fact, the first thoughts that come to mind are:
“It may not be financially feasible to provide care to all immigrants.”
“To have a material impact on this issue would require more time than I have, since I have a family, work a demanding job, want to be there for my loved ones and need to take care of my own health.”
These thoughts allow me to still feel “good” and feel “right” about my inaction.
(Even as write this, I am squirming, because I can see the inconsistency.)
While immigrant access to healthcare may not be an issue important to everyone, I imagine that many of us have social causes that we care about in our hearts and minds and yet, we may not translate that sense of care into action.
So how can we remedy this cognitive dissonance?
Practical steps to combat cognitive dissonance:
Change the questions you ask yourself: Our internal questions (i.e., inner monologue) direct our thinking and as a result guide our actions. Marilee Adam’s Book Change Your Questions, Change Your Life makes a compelling case that we unintentionally stifle our own thinking because we aren’t purposeful about the questions that we ask ourselves. One of the more powerful tools from her book is a technique called “switching questions” which enables an individual to shift from judger to learner. One example of applying this question to my beliefs above: What assumptions am I making? 9 In the second thought I assume that there is no middle ground - the options are either I fully dedicate my life to the cause or do nothing. When I acknowledge this implicit assumption, it opens me up to realizing that my thought is wrong, but it is uncomfortable to admit that.
Seek out different perspectives: We naturally will hold onto our desire to be right, so as a result, we continue to fool ourselves into irrational thoughts or behavior. This is harder to do when we ask for the perspective of others. For example, I reached out to an organizer at one of the leading immigrants rights organizations here in New York and she has a number of ideas for small actions I can take to contribute, which effectively proved my inner monologue above wrong.
Ask someone to hold you accountable: It’s really easy to make commitments to ourselves and then not follow through (New Year’s resolutions anyone?). The power of accountability is that since many of us do not like to let others down, the simple fact that we know someone is going to ask us whether we did what we said we would do to counteract our cognitive dissonance is a powerful motivator.
Some questions I reflected on today:
In what way does my own cognitive dissonance prevent me from having more of a positive impact on communities I care about?
What is one action I can take this week to overcome my cognitive dissonance when it comes to issues I care about (e.g., health justice for immigrants)?
What is a consistent action I can take over the next 12 months to overcome my cognitive dissonance when it comes to issues I care about (e.g., health justice for immigrants)?
Who will hold me accountable for this?
It also includes one of my favorite rappers - Residente from Calle 13. While very different thematically from Immigrants (ha!), their song Atrevete-te-te hits like no other.
The social psychologist Leon Festinger coined cognitive dissonance theory in 1957. There is something ironic about the fact that we’ve known about it for 65 years and it continues to plague us. Yet another example of awareness being quite different than having the skill and will to make changes.
Another famous study on cognitive dissonance shows that bettors at a horse race were more confident in the horse they bet on after they placed the bet than before. Credit for this example goes to Bruce Peltier from his book The Psychology of Executive Coaching. While it is quite dense, it is one of the best primers on psychology and how to apply it in working with people, not just for coaches but also for managers.
The Psychology of Executive Coaching by Bruce Peltier
Consider this explanation from the Decision Lab: “Most of us care for nature and want to preserve it. But the evidence championed by these movements often indicates that we aren’t doing enough as individuals. Many of us are part of the problem. Such evidence shows us that our behaviors are often at odds with our beliefs.
Seeing this contradiction, many of us respond by either rationalizing our behaviors, rejecting environmentalism and the evidence it relies on, or adopting the belief that our individual actions have a negligible effect on the environment. This prevents the widespread behavioral change many environmental causes call for.”
And any reader of this newsletter has likely picked up by now how big of an impact sports have had on my character and on the way I view the world. If my condition had been caught several years later (or not caught at all), I likely would have spent my life in a wheel chair.
Documented Newsletter June 23, 2022. Also, among citizen children in U.S., those with at least one noncitizen parent are 2.5x’s more likely to be uninsured as those with citizen parents. This data comes from a really thorough report by the Kaufman Family Foundation on Health Coverage of Immigrants.
Also check out my reflection on the Multiverse of Perspective for more practical ways for how to do this.
Sean, always spectacular, This one is very special. Love it. Blessings.
Vic Sr