Why Congress' Obamacare Doomsday Cult Can't Admit It Was Wrong

Why Congress' Obamacare Doomsday Cult Can't Admit It Was Wrong

by Michael McAuliff at the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/16/obamacare-cognitive-dissonance_n_6866278.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

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The way cognitive dissonance works is that when people are confronted with information that contradicts either their beliefs or actions, they feel discomfort. To feel better, they either have to modify their beliefs and actions, or find some way to discount the disconfirming information. And the more effort someone invests in a particular action or idea, the greater the lengths they will go in crafting justifications to ease their discomfort.

“That’s really the way the human mind works, even outside of Washington,” Aronson told HuffPost.

Aronson and co-author Carol Tavris looked closely at that phenomenon in their 2007 book, Mistakes Were Made (but not by me). Among the examples are prosecutors who insist that people cleared by DNA evidence are still guilty; scientists who insist results that agree with funders’ interests could not have been swayed, and people who like an idea from their political party, but dislike the same idea if told it came from the opposition party.

Indeed, committing to a specific ideology can make it much harder to see facts clearly, let alone acknowledge them. Aronson noted that it’s especially hard for people who spent the last five years opposing a specific policy. “These guys are so committed to the belief that Obama can’t do anything right, and that Obamacare is socialism, that it would be very, very difficult for them to examine the data objectively," he said. "I think that’s what’s wrong with politics, that’s what’s wrong with ideology, that’s what’s wrong with politics that are ideologically driven.”



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