Podcast
Hidden Brain
The hosts highlighted the book as a thorough exploration of cognitive dissonance, noting how it explains why people craft narratives to justify both happy and unhappy marriages. Shankar Vedantam and guest Elliot Aronson discussed its insights, calling it a very fine work by researchers linked to Leon Festinger. They presented it as a valuable resource for understanding self‑justification and decision‑making.
Episode: Outsmarting Yourself
The book discusses the concept of cognitive dissonance and how it relates to marriage, where people often create narratives to justify their situations, regardless of whether the marriage is happy or not.
In the book that you wrote with Carol, Carol Tavares, Mistakes Were Made But Not By Me, you cite work looking at marriages, looking at how regardless of how marriages turn out, people tell stories that explain sort of why it is they've ended up the way they have.
The fascinating thing, I think, about the work that you and others have done is that it actually doesn't matter which course of life you choose. Cognitive dissonance is still probably going to be at play.
You have a happy marriage, you're going to tell yourself a story about why you have a happy marriage, but the same is true also if you have an unhappy marriage.
Yeah, it's true. But if you have a happy marriage, you don't need a story.
If you have an unhappy marriage, you need a story. You need a story as to why you're staying in it. You need a story as to why you're ending it. And chances are, the story is very self-enhancing.
Episode: When You Need It To Be True
It was described as a very fine book that explores the science of cognitive dissonance.
Elliot and Carol are also the authors of a very fine book that explores the science of cognitive dissonance. It's called Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me.
Episode: When You Need It To Be True
It was mentioned as a very fine book that explores the science of cognitive dissonance, written by researchers who worked with Leon Festinger.
It's called Mistakes Were Made, But Not By Me.
