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Cognitive Dissonance In Dystopian Society

1553 Words7 Pages

Cognitive dissonance is by definition the ¨state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs or attitudes (McLeod, Simply Psychology) which produces feelings of discomfort.” In order to dispel those feelings the brain leads a person to alter the thoughts, beliefs or attitudes that are in disagreement with the rest, restoring the brain to harmony. When we humans have a thought or commit an atrocity that goes against our morals or long standing beliefs we either apologize or justify the action, telling ourselves that the person we hurt deserved it and brought it upon themselves. We continue to search for justification until we no longer view ourselves as in the wrong. This mental capability has, in my opinion, been the leading agent in nationś wars and oppression against others. The most prominent being attempts to stamp out races because of their so called ¨inferior race/ heritage¨. Mental dissonance is also an ingredient in many dystopian societies …show more content…

This idea comes into play often when choosing leaders to follow. If a person promiseś us one thing that we crave but while achieving that for us will do things we do not believe morally right we force ourselves to focus solely on that thing we want and overlook what we don´t. In our minds we are justifying the leaderś actions as necessary because they lead to our ¨prize¨, an example of cognitive dissonance effects.. This is especially true in ¨Lord of the Flies¨ when the boys desert Ralph to join Jack. Ralph is a natural leader and commands respect having ¨a stillness about [him]¨ that ¨marks him out¨ (Golding, 22) from the rest of the boys. He is clever in the way he handles different personalities; giving Jack control of the hunters to ease his ¨mortification¨ (Golding, 23) over not being elected chief, and thinks not just of the immediate future but of how to survive and eventually be rescued. The boys choose him as

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