- Fucking shoulders.
Hello and welcome to "What's
with People?! with Doc Loch."
I'm Dr. Stephanie Lochbihler,
social psychologist
and F-word fanatic.
(beep)
The goal of these videos
is to give mini-lessons
on phenomena, theories, and
topics in social psychology
which is the scientific
study of the way people
think about, influence,
and relate to others.
Or in other words, it is the science
of, "Why the fuck are people like that?"
This video focuses on a question
that many have asked me,
which is, "What's with
people being so committed
to being wrong?
Like, why are people so fucking stupid?"
But what we'll talk about
today is that maybe it's not
that they're stupid, though
some of them could be,
but it's that they are so
resistant to being wrong
that it makes them appear
stupid, based on what they do
to avoid admitting that they're wrong.
Also, spoiler alert, we all do it.
(upbeat music)
You've heard of self-esteem, right?
It's that thing that people
say that we need to have
in order to be happy and that
American society in particular
has devoted lots and lots
of effort to try and boost.
From self-help books and memes
and motivational speakers
and talking to yourself in
the mirror every morning,
telling yourself that you're
perfect, you're beautiful,
you look like Linda Evangelista.
Self-esteem is the way that
we think about ourselves,
or it's a positive or negative
evaluation of ourselves
and all these things that I
just mentioned were created
to try and help us
achieve high self-esteem
and to try and fix the low self-esteem.
This is based on the idea
that there's many benefits
that come from having high self-esteem
and that low self-esteem
is (blows raspberry).
Now if you're curious
about your own self-esteem
there are tests that you can
take to find out how high
or low your self-esteem is.
(tongue clicking)
Go check it out.
But in all actuality most
of us have a pretty good
reputation with ourselves.
In fact in studies of self-esteem
even low-scoring people
respond in the mid-range of scores.
So for example, a person with
low self-esteem still thinks
they're okay rather than
that they suck altogether.
So in general people feel
pretty good about themselves
and people work really
hard to keep feeling good
about themselves as
shown by how consistently
we as humans use what's called
self-serving biases to make
ourselves feel good about ourselves.
Ooh, you got served.
And when I say they work
hard it's mostly their brain
that's doing the work
without them even being aware
that it's happening at all.
The self-serving biases are
distorted ways of thinking
that occur in order to keep
or even enhance self-esteem.
One example of the
self-serving bias is called
the above average effect
and, just like it sounds,
it is how people believe
that they are above average
on positive traits.
When people are asked to
rank themselves on qualities
like how reasonable or friendly
or funny that they think
they are most people say
they are above average
compared to others on those qualities.
Which, by law of averages,
doesn't make any fucking sense.
You're gonna have people
who are below average
but no one thinks it's them.
In general, we all think we're much better
than we actually are which
is why our self-esteem
is pretty good in general.
Another self-serving bias
that we do to maintain
that self-esteem is by claiming
that positive things happen
because of how great we are
but when negative things happen
it's because of other people,
or things outside of ourselves.
Like saying, "I got an
A," and taking credit
for that good grade versus saying,
"The professor gave me an F," and implying
that it's not your fault.
And I'm sure you can think
of examples in your own life
of people doing this shit.
Like when your friend wins a game
it's because they're so
talented but when they lose
it's because of the referees
and bad calls or whatever.
If they get a job that they interviewed
for it's because they
had a great interview
and they have all the qualifications.
But if they don't get it
it's because the interviewer
didn't like them and, "Was totally stupid
and I didn't want that
job in the first place."
But don't think it's just
everyone else who does this shit
and not you, that's a
self-serving bias too.
To believe that others are
influenced or affected by biases
and errors but that we're not,
'cause we're like so awesome.
Self-serving biases are
normal and they're useful
and everyone does it to some degree.
And we do this shit because
we're extremely motivated
to maintain our self-esteem.
In fact a study found that
college students preferred
a boost to their self-esteem
more than sex and pizza
and money and beer.
I mean that's like the four food groups
for a college student.
Oh, ramen. Ramen.
So let's recap.
Recap!
Over half of a century social
psychologists have found
that one of the most powerful influences
of human behavior stems
from our need to maintain
positive self-esteem.
So we see ourselves as
reasonable and moral and smart
but what happens if we do things
that imply that we're not those things?
What do we do?
When this shit happens we
feel a variety of emotions:
bad, sad, mad.
But I'm gonna call it discomfort.
And this discomfort caused
by performing an action
that goes against how
we feel about ourselves
is called cognitive dissonance.
♪ Cognitive dissonance ♪
This discomfort that
is felt leads us to try
and find ways to reduce that feeling.
Because, again, we wanna
feel good about ourselves.
So we are motivated to
change the way that we think
or behave and sometimes in
ways that might surprise
ourselves and others.
So here's an example.
Say you're a happy person
with a reasonable amount
of self-esteem and then COVID happens
but you still wanna go out with
friends, or go to the stores
without wearing a mask
so you do those things.
But then you get bombarded
with news and information
and people saying that wearing a mask
and limiting and forgoing
social outings is important
and necessary to reduce
the spread of COVID.
Now this information goes
against your self-image
because it implies that
what you were doing
was irresponsible and
selfish and immoral or dumb.
So you experience dissonance or discomfort
which motivates you to
reduce that feeling.
So here's the thing, you
got a couple of choices.
You can change your
behavior by wearing masks
and not hanging out with friends.
However, you can't really undo a behavior
that you've already done
so doing this can sometimes
makes people feel like this as
an admission of being wrong,
not to mention it's often more difficult
to change a behavior.
So a quicker option might be
to just change your thoughts.
You can change your thoughts
by convincing yourself
that COVID isn't really
that easy to spread,
or that masks aren't
really that effective,
or that it's no different than the flu,
or that only old people die from it
and they were gonna die soon anyway,
or that COVID doesn't even exist
at all and it's just a ploy
to mess with an election
or to strip people
of their freedom.
Oh God.
And doing these things
will reduce your dissonance
and make you feel happy and comfy again.
But check it, all that shit
is generally done pretty much
without your awareness.
It's largely an unconscious process
that people don't even know they're doing.
And even knowing of it's
existence like you do now
doesn't mean that you still won't do it.
But, we'll get to that in a minute.
Stay tuned.
So changing your thoughts
is often a preferred method
because it's much easier
than changing your behavior
or admitting that you're wrong.
Smoking cigarettes is a great example.
It's much easier to convince yourself
that you're too healthy
to get lung cancer,
or that lots of people
smoke and don't die from it,
or that you'll eventually quit,
than to actually go ahead and quit.
Now as I mentioned before
sometimes the need to maintain
self-esteem overpowers
our thinking so much
that we end up rationalizing
rather than being rational.
Do you see what I did there?
Yeah.
So when people are in the
middle of trying to get rid
of dissonance they're so involved
with convincing themselves
and others that they're right
that they can end up behaving
irrationally or even in harmful ways.
So, for example, in 1954 a
researcher and his colleagues
observed a cult that believed
that UFOs would come to Earth
and rescue them from the
apocalypse that was gonna happen
on a specific date.
It's the end of the world.
Many of these followers
ended up quitting their jobs
and getting rid of all
their earthly possessions
in anticipation of this
end-of-the-world event,
fully believing that it was gonna happen.
But when the predicted date
came and went without anything
happening instead of
admitting the wrongfulness
of their actions and beliefs
they actually began to believe
that their actions were
what saved the world
and then they became even more
convinced of their beliefs.
Now this seems like an extreme example
and it sounds fucking crazy
but this shit happens in
everyday scenarios too.
These mental gymnastics,
or justifications,
may sound ridiculous to
others but it makes absolute
and perfect sense to people who are trying
to reduce dissonance.
There are so many people
who don't want to give up
their beliefs, even if
they've been scientifically
discredited, or people who
support the bad behavior
of a loved politician, or
people who doubt the top experts
when they're told that they
gotta wear masks, or not smoke,
or get vaccinated, or
believe in global warming,
or not date someone named Brock.
Like, here's the thing, to most people
the shit they come up
with seems really dumb
until you realize that it's
almost kind of impressive
how creative they can
be at denying evidence
and reducing their dissonance.
For example, many studies have found
that when people are
presented with information
that either supports or
opposes their beliefs
people will act in ways
that will allow them to stay
fully committed to their beliefs
and to protect their egos.
This is called confirmation
bias, it's the tendency
for people to seek out and prefer
and to remember information
that agrees with their beliefs
and to avoid or reinterpret information
that disagrees with them.
This is why we seek out
news sources or post memes
or become friends with
people that typically confirm
our own beliefs.
But we can't always avoid information
that disagrees with us, right?
When confronted with information
that counters our beliefs
in order to maintain
that happy comfy feeling
and to protect our self-esteem
we often avoid or ignore
or dismiss or reinterpret or
even counter that information.
Or even go so far as to
discredit the sources.
A brain scan study found
that the reasoning areas
of the brain actually shut down
when a person is confronted
with opposing information.
Now this makes it easy
to dismiss information
as being invalid or irrelevant
or false or manipulated
or Fake News.
Fake news.
People will also interpret
information or data differently
depending on what they already believe.
In one study people were provided evidence
that supported the idea
that capital punishment
deters crime, and it had both
strong and weak arguments,
and then they also
provided them with evidence
that went against this,
again with both strong
and weak arguments.
They found that whichever
strong argument supported
their views was taken as truth
at face value and remembered.
But they ended up
dismissing the information
that went against their beliefs
without even considering
it and ended up only
remembering the weak arguments
for the opposing side.
So is it surprising then that
this happens in politics?
In one study college students were asked
which political candidate they liked best
before watching a presidential
debate and after watching
the debate they were asked
to then rate the quality
of each of the candidates' arguments.
The students were more likely
to rate their preferred
candidate as having won the debate.
This is because they
remembered the strong moments
that their candidate had
while only remembering
the weak moments for
the opposing candidate.
So you may be thinking,
"Oh yeah, like I totally
got a dumb ass uncle or
co-worker or parent or whatever
who does that shit like all the time."
Dismissing information or
ignoring the actual data
or even discrediting the source.
Oh yeah?
Well what's your source,
just some dumb blonde
who cusses all the time?
That's my bro voice.
It's not a very good bro voice.
It's my Brock voice.
But the thing is you probably are doing it
to some capacity too.
And like I said before, it's mostly done
under our awareness.
Hell, I mean I'm even prone to doing it
and I studied this shit.
So everyone is affected
by cognitive dissonance
and the need to maintain self-esteem
and it's because it works.
But if we spend all our
time and effort defending
our fragile little baby
egos we would never learn
from our mistakes or bad
decisions or incorrect beliefs
and those can have very
terrible consequences.
Like when a political figure
defends their decision
to start a war even after
being given evidence
that contradicts their reasoning.
Or when cult members commit suicide
because of their strong
commitments to false beliefs.
Or when prosecutors will
try to block efforts
to reopen cases after
receiving new evidence.
Even though it's mostly
an unconscious process
we do have the ability to
stop it by becoming more aware
of the way that it works.
So in order to not fall
victim to the impact
of our self-serving biases
and cognitive dissonance
pay attention to the next
time that you feel discomfort
after acting in a way
or receiving information
that goes against your values or beliefs.
And you can pause the
self-justification shit
before it even starts and
make sure that you're acting
and reacting to the situation
and information in a non-biased way.
It's all about keeping our egos in check
and being able to say, "I'm...
I'm wr...
I'm wr...
Wrong.
I'm wrong."
Every once in a while
wouldn't hurt us either.
It did hurt a little.
I'm not wrong.
Fuck.
(tongue clicking)
You've been served a bias.
(upbeat music)
Hi, welcome, it's me.
Really?
It's me Doc Loch.
Ya.
Alexa, stop.
Stop it, you're embarrassing yourself.
Fuck.
(groaning)
Alexa, I fixed it.
♪ All by myself ♪
(tongue clicking)
