Using Cognitive Dissonance to Introduce Rational Thinking

We all know people who disagree with us. It can be frustrating, but for those who are open minded, those types of disagreements are typically intellectual and can be discussed rationally. In American politics, we are facing another type of disagreement, this one is based in psychological boundaries the person holding the position has no power to breach. They are "firewalled" from thinking of alternative positions.

So, how does this happen?

It is, to a lesser degree, the same type of response the brain has in a "dissociative" disorder, such as Traumatic Stress, or even schizophrenia. The mind, when suffering trauma it is unable to reconcile will actually reroute thinking to other synapses in the brain, so that the body can survive.

This new neural pathway, if revisited by a similar traumatic event, becomes a kind of hardwired exception to the normal, rational thinking that all humans engage in, except where programmed not to.

They are literally incapable of even examining new information regarding this. They can agree, acknowledge they are wrong, and still be completely incapable of stopping this reroute from taking place. The brain has been physiologically changed in its operation.

It doesn't require a traumatic event, however

As children, we are all taught many things within the environment of our home and family. Many of these things persist as ideas in our thinking long into adult years, but the ones most persistent are those driven home through repitition, coupled with strong emotion, particular negative emotions, such as fear, or mistrust.

For instance, a person who is racist might hear over and over again:

• Martians are criminals, they will steal every chance they get, they can't help it.
• Martians will hurt you if you give them the chance, they are more violent than other species.
• A martian once dated my sister and raped her.
• We have martian control laws for a good reason and lessening those control will only bring evil.
• Martians believe in abusing each other, especially the women and children.
• Martians don't have strong moral values.

A child hearing these things enough, coupled with reminders not to closely associate with martians, is likely to grow up fearing and possibly even hating martians. (of course, I am being ridiculous by using martians, but you get the point, yes?)

They are then taught how to avoid contact, how to respond, when necessary and how to protect themselves from then martian threat. Even though they themselves may never see it, they are told stories of horrible treatment at the hands of this other group, and they believe it.

Their brains are being rewired

Firewalls are being built up and the more traumatically the false information is presented, the stronger that barrier becomes. The mind has no mechanism from telling reality from fantasy. It can only compare to what it knows, but has no real way to determine that what it knows, is in fact, reality.

The child, and later the adult, has no control over this thinking. They may eventually learn to control their physical responses, but in the mind, the thinking stays the same.

This happens in politics too

Republicans think the democrats are to blame and vice verse. Not to say that some things cannot be placed on one group or the other, but it becomes a "kneejerk" reaction, to the point that when the parties periodically flip sides on an issue. (I've seen it happen) most party loyals will flip with them! They have come to know "the other side" as evil and their own side as inherently trustworthy.

No amount of education or arguing will ever break through one of these mental firewalls. Every single time the victim of this conditioning is presented with that idea, image or thought, the firewall is triggered, rerouting their thinking into nearly automated responses, defending the "good" and attacking the "bad" without truly examining either position rationally.

The trojan horse land mine

The only way to defeat a person's hard wired biases is to present them with an idea that explodes their mythology in such a way that they are faced with the false reality of it.

For example: The martian hater is in a terrible accident. They are rescued, a complex surgery is performed and they are nursed back to health, without their knowledge, by a martian. When they recover, they want to be grateful to their rescuer, and are now faced with the reality that this "monster" they were trained to hate is something other than they believed them to be.

This creates "cognitive dissonance"

Cognitive dissonance, is a feedback loop. I hate this person because people like them are evil, but this person was kind and saved me, I hate this person because people like them are...which continues until A: the person finally accepts the fact that their conditioning was faulty and disarms the firewall, or B: The break with reality and harm themselves or someone else.

When you find someone who agrees with a rational point, then says, "yes, but martians are evil" you know you are dealing with mental firewalls.

How to handle it

You will never convince a person with a firewall that this firewall is not real. It's impossible. You'd have a better chance of getting them to stop eating, forever. They are incapable of approaching that area of thought, without the firewall going up, and the reroute into automated responses taking place.

Back down. You can't win this fight, no matter how right you are. Even if it really is white and they say it's black. The only way to do this without traumatizing the person and replacing their original firewall with a new one, is to present them with the chance to experience it, typically without their knowledge, so that the firewall is not tripped.

When the firewall is not tripped and they realize that not all martians are evil, your work is done. The mind, being a rational machine, will do the rest.