Chapter 7 Thinking and Intelligence 241of fairness keeps us from behaving like self-
centered louts; mental sets and the hindsight
bias help us impose order on all the informa-
tion we have to deal with. But our mental biases
can also get us into trouble. The confirmation
bias, the justification of effort, and the need
to reduce postdecision dissonance permit peo-
ple to stay stuck with decisions that eventually
prove to be self-defeating, harmful, or incorrect.
Physicians may continue using outdated meth-
ods, district attorneys may overlook evidence
that a criminal suspect might be innocent, and
managers may refuse to consider better business
practices.
To make matters worse, most people have a
“bias blind spot”: They acknowledge that other
people have biases that distort reality, but they
think that they themselves are free of bias and see
the world as it really is (Pronin, Gilovich, & Ross,
2004; Ross, 2010). This blind spot is itself a bias,
and it is a dangerous one, because it can prevent
individuals, nations, and ethnic or religious groups
from resolving conflicts with others. Each side
thinks that its own proposals for ending a con-
flict, or its own analyses of a disagreement, are
reasonable and fair but the other side’s are biased.
Cognitive psychologists, though, don’t think the
situation is hopeless. They find that once we
understand a bias, we may be able to reduce or
eliminate it, especially if we make an active, mind-
ful effort to do so and take time to think carefully
(Kida, 2006).
Some people, of course, seem to think more
rationally than others; we call them “intelli-
gent.” Just what is intelligence, and how can we
measure and improve it? We take up these ques-
tions next.it”; “It’s just this once”; “The store can afford
this loss”). Or if you see yourself as a kind per-
son and you harm someone, you may reduce
your dissonance by blaming the person you have
victimized (“She brought it on herself”; “It’s his
fault”).3
When you need to justify the effort put into a
decision or choice. The harder you work to
reach a goal, or the more you suffer for it, the
more you will try to convince yourself that you
value the goal, even if the goal turns out to be
not so great after all (Aronson & Mills, 1959).
This explains why hazing, whether in social clubs,
on athletic teams, or in the military, turns new
recruits into loyal members (see Figure 7.2). The
cognition “I went through a lot of awful stuff to
join this group” is dissonant with the cognition
“only to find I hate the group.” Therefore, people
must decide either that the hazing was not so bad
or that they really like the group. This mental
reevaluation is called the justification of effort, and
it is one of the most popular methods of reducing
dissonance.Some people are secure enough to own
up to their mistakes instead of justifying them,
and individuals and cultures vary in the kinds of
experiences that cause them to feel dissonance.
However, the need for cognitive consistency in
those beliefs that are most central to our sense of
self and our values is universal (Tavris & Aronson,
2007).
Our mental biases have some benefits. The
ability to reduce cognitive dissonance helps us
preserve our self-confidence and avoid sleepless
nights second-guessing ourselves; having a sensejustification of effort
The tendency of indi-
viduals to increase their
liking for something that
they have worked hard or
suffered to attain; a com-
mon form of dissonance
reduction.None Mild
Type of initiationSevere1009080
Liking for groupFIGuRE 7.2 The Justification of Effort
The more effort you put into reaching a goal, the more highly you are likely to value it. As you can see in the graph
on the left, after people listened to a boring group discussion, those who went through a severe initiation to join the
group rated it most highly (Aronson & Mills, 1959). In the photo, mud-covered soldiers are undergoing difficult train-
ing to join an elite unit. They will probably become extremely devoted members.