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Are you thinking about cognitive dissonance? I was a little thrown off by our example, but cognitive dissonance is often associated with the tendency for people to resist information that they don't want to think about, because it would require them to act in ways that depart from their comfortable habits, so it could work.
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As these boards are so incredibly gracious when it comes to helpful replies, I thought I'd throw out this question (for one of my classes) to see if anyone's interested...
What is the term (if there is one) for the act of rationalizing, refusing to accept or even denying known wrongs because of a desire (conscious or unconscious) to avoid uncomfortable truths? The example I use is the family who protects a relative known to have committed some violent crime, rationalizing it as self-defense or blaming the victim, because they want to believe that their relative couldn't do such a thing (despite evidence to the contrary). Any ideas? Thanks.
Patriotism.
*rimshot*
Director of Sales
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It also sounds like a state of simple denial. Although cognitive dissonance sound pretty close as well. Those wikipedia links may provide areas of further investigation in their citations if this isn't quite what you were thinking.
Cognitive dissonance? I just don't see it, sorry.
What is the term (if there is one) for the act of rationalizing, refusing to accept or even denying known wrongs because of a desire (conscious or unconscious) to avoid uncomfortable truths? The example I use is the family who protects a relative known to have committed some violent crime, rationalizing it as self-defense or blaming the victim, because they want to believe that their relative couldn't do such a thing (despite evidence to the contrary). Any ideas? Thanks.
Speaking as an academic psychologist . . .
I'd have to agree with those who call it dissonance -- specifically, dissonance reduction.
When you have a system of beliefs that contain contradictions (e.g., "Billy raped that woman" and "Billy wouldn't do a thing like that") there's internal pressure to render the system consistent again. The principal ways to do this are to change one of the cognitions ("Billy really didn't do it -- he's being framed") or add justifications ("She was asking for trouble, dressed like that.")
There are other ways to deal with dissonance, such as getting drunk, but those are the two main ones.
A term for the general case of this behavior is "problematic integration." People can handle things when they fit with their world view. They need to work to handle things that are divergent from their world view. Problematic integration happens when someone can't. So if you see a UFO and you don't believe in aliens, you try to make the integration less problematic, either by accepting it or making it not what people say it is. Some people are better at that than others.
Mike
What is the term (if there is one) for the act of rationalizing, refusing to accept or even denying known wrongs because of a desire (conscious or unconscious) to avoid uncomfortable truths?
Delusion.
What is the term (if there is one) for the act of rationalizing, refusing to accept or even denying known wrongs because of a desire (conscious or unconscious) to avoid uncomfortable truths?
Religion. Patriotism. Political partisanship. Parenting.
Huh, I was gonna say d%+$&ead.
Hey, you want to try an interesting experiment in cognitive dissonance without all the soul-searching? (If you try this on your class, Bling Bling, I'd warn that a little coarse language is involved here.)
First, watch this now-classic YouTube video for the song "Moskau" by Dschinghis Khan from the 1991 EuroVision contest:
Go ahead, I'll still be here when you get back.
Welcome back. That was catchy in a scary German Skittles-colored Village People sort of way, no?
But the thing is, unless you speak German, you can't remember any of the lyrics. You just can't. Your brain can't accept it because it's beyond your limited understanding.
Okay, now watch this inspired "re-interpretation" of the lyrics:
Still not going anywhere.
Now try to sing any part of the song. You can, right? Your brain knows the lyrics aren't "Come and dance and love the fish/Mister Disco summoned it" but you've made it part of your reality.
Totally harmless cognitive dissonance.
Mike
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Hey, you want to try an interesting experiment in cognitive dissonance without all the soul-searching? (If you try this on your class, Bling Bling, I'd warn that a little course language is involved here.)
First, watch this now-classic YouTube video for the song "Moskau" by Dschingis Khan from the 1991 EuroVision contest:
Go ahead, I'll still be here when you get back.Welcome back. That was catchy in a scary German Skittles-colored Village People sort of way, no?
But the thing is, unless you speak German, you can't remember any of the lyrics. You just can't. Your brain can't accept it because it's beyond your limited understanding.
Okay, now watch this inspired "re-interpretation" of the lyrics:
Still not going anywhere.Now try to sing any of the song. You can, right? Your brain knows the lyrics aren't "Come and dance and love the fish/Mister Disco summoned it" but you've made it part of your reality.
Totally harmless cognitive dissonance.
Mike
Interesting experiment - but believe me it gets even more scary when you understand the lyrics.
Regarding the original question: I'd say denial is the word you are looking for, though I'm not 100% sure since I may study educational science but do so in germany and don't know many of the english terms. I will look up some of the case studies involving the behaviour you described and perhaps I will find the medical (latin) term used by psychologists - you may find commonly used english terms once you have those.I'll ost once I was succesful.
...Totally harmless cognitive dissonance.
Mike
Good God I can't stop laughing. Someone kill me, please.
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Sorry sof far I had no luck finding latin terms for any of those cases, but I found english case studies. You could find more extensive exlanations if you research defense mechanisms in neurotic behavour.
Denial: removing unwanted feelings and facts as far as ossible from your own person, while still recognizing them when seen in others, often isolating feelings so they become an object for study and discussion but not for emotional reaction.
Undoing: Looking for excuses/explanations of the disturbing behaviour, trying to see the behaviour as accetable through reasoning and outer influences or to minimalize them, making them "not that bad".
I hope these short examples were of any help.
For those entertained by it last time, I just re-ran the Moskau cognitive dissonance experiment on my Most Beautiful Things blog. Much wailing ensued. More converts to Dschinghis Khan!
Mike