More on Cognitive Dissonance

Here’s a link: The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion. Fascinating reading. It describes the common occurrence of anti-abortion activists going in to get an abortion.

The cognitive dissonance is staggering. In these anecdotes, some literally go from the picket lines into the clinic for the abortion and then back to the picket lines. Most consider their abortion to be necessary unlike the rest of the people in the clinic. Some abuse other patients for being immoral and one woman screamed “you murderers!” to the clinic staff as they performed the abortion she requested.

This seems to be just an extreme case of cognitive dissonances we all have (as discussed before). We all break rules that we think should be there in principle. Why? The usual justification is I’m special. This doesn’t apply to me. I have good reasons for this unlike the rest. I’ve been driven to this by circumstances. The I’m-special attitude is one of the most common cognitive biases. For instance, when a study asks people to estimate their driving ability the results are always grossly skewed (eg. 93% of people saying they’re in the top 50% of drivers).

This also seems to be related to moral development. Sociopaths are an example of people at a level of dissonance even more extreme than described in the link above. Sociopaths might genuinely not see why it’s not right for them to hurt others (if it’s not right for others to hurt them). The more a person or a society develops, the more they pay attention to the laws being universal and applying to themselves as well. Of course it’s another quirk of humanity that the people in the abortion clinic stories might have this faculty very well developed in other areas of their life.

I’m not a fan of Kant as a great moral philosopher but there is surely something about his Categorical Imperative (my paraphrase): act only in such a way that is consistent with your actions being a universal law (that applies both to yourself and others).