Cognitive Dissonance Date Friday, April 19, 2024 - 09:01 AM PST Topic Theories Cognitive Dissonance: -n; anxiety that results from simultaneously holding contradictory or otherwise incompatible attitudes, beliefs, or the like, as when one likes a person but disapproves strongly of one of his or her habits. This is the dictionary definition of cognitive dissonance. Modern psychology has a more in depth definition of it. Cognitive dissonance is that odd feeling in your head when you try to consider conflicting ideas at the same time. Psychologists go further in this definition. It is the the perception of incompatibility between these conflicting ideas, as opposed to the true incompatibility that is the main source of dissonance. Psychology refers to cognitions as opposed to ideas. Cognition is defined as any element of knowledge, including attitude, emotion, belief or behavior. We all experience cognitive dissonance. Most people will experience it many times on a daily basis. You smoke, yet you know they are bad for you. When someone mentions this, you get irritated, not because of the person telling you the obvious, but because your mind generates dissonance between these two ideas. The human mind is equipped with mechanisms to deal with this dissonance in a safe, non-disruptive and non-destructive manner. Basically, one of the ideas that you hold in your mind is weaker than the other. The psychological addiction is stronger than the need for good health, therefore when the dissonance registers higher than the desire for health, the mind makes a decision and dissonance is resolved. Let me give you an example. You are siting around shooting the breeze with your friends. Everyone went to the same restaurant for dinner and got a large drink. Now that you are in your living room, there are 4 or five large sodas sitting around. You love Doctor Pepper. You reach for your cup, and take a long, hard pull on it. It's not your drink. It's Sierra Mist. That moment, those fifteen seconds where your mind short circuits and tries not to induce a seizure from surprise, shock and confusion, is cognitive dissonance. Those with Apserger's Syndrome (AS) have a harder time with cognitive dissonance than normal people do. The AS has no shades of gray. There is not subtlety to thought, reasoning or belief. Simply put, the AS mind has 3 settings on most topics. Love. Hate. Don't give a shit. As a result of this, there is never a stronger and weaker concept in the AS mind. So, when dissonance occurs, there is no way to resolve it. The same mechanism that saves mental anguish in the normal mind is in place in the AS, but does not resolve the issue. The dissonance is not resolved because neither of the concepts is weaker. This may not sound like a problem to you, but I assure you – it is a major problem. Imagine that Sierra Mist moment lasting hours, or days... or in some cases, not ending. That moment of cognitive dissonance is stressful, rough on you emotionally. Extended periods of cognitive dissonance can be profoundly damaging. Now, let's apply this to a social situation. The AS mind is does not assimilate the “unwritten rules” of social interaction. The social interactions of AS are based on logical progressions - based on learned, reasoned responses. While this unnerves the normal people that the AS deals with, it is mentally exhausting for the AS. Imagine doing quadratic equations while attempting to look something up in the encyclopedia and holding a conversation. Our social interaction is based on logical progression. Person A says this. Person B says this. Therefore the proper response should be this. When this fails, everyone stops talking and looks at you like you like you have sprouted a second head. You have no response to that. You sit there and experience a social Sierra Mist moment. For several moments, there is utter and total cognitive dissonance. While this is not an issue for the average mind, it is for the AS. You can shake it off and move on. The AS is stuck. While that Sierra Mist moment is uncomfortable, you can walk away. That moment, HURTS. And what's worse, it does not fade. Until the AS mind can understand the information that has caused the source of dissonance, it will not go away. So, tell me. What is your reaction to pain? Do you want to hug someone? Talk? Interact in any way? No... for that few moments, when the pain is at its worst, you want to be left the fuck alone. Cognitive dissonance, while uncomfortable for you, is downright painful to the AS mind. All thought processes and reasoning come to a shuddering, crashing, painful halt. Thing is, the normal minded people, don't even notice what has happened. They are unaware that the social interaction application of their conversational partner has crashed and is currently taking up all the processing power of the AS unit. Blissfully unaware, the normal continues talking – adding more information to the situation. Until dissonance is resolved, this additional information is like pouring salt in the wound. It just exacerbates the problem. You cut yourself and if someone does that to you, you lash out. The dissonant AS is the same. There is an outburst of what is perceived to be temper or complete social inappropriateness. In reality, the AS is simply saying, “Leave me the fuck alone till the pain passes.” Here's the kicker. Most AS don't know that they are. Most don't understand the way their mind works. Most of them don't understand a damn thing that is going on around them. All they know is that they are mystified, and sometimes people will say something that confuses them and then they lose a friend because they were angry as a result. Let me tell you, it sucks. 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