Shared social reinforcement amplifies irrational rationalization of mistaken beliefs

Evidence

From the outside, it is easy to dismiss these as the beliefs of gullible fools, yet in further experimental work by Festinger and others it was shown that—to one degree or another—all of us suffer from cognitive dissonance. When we join a health club that is too far away, we may justify the purchase by telling our friends that the workouts are so intense we only need to go once a week; when we fail to get the grade we’d like in organic chemistry, we tell ourselves that we didn’t really didn’t want to go to medical school anyway. But there is another aspect of cognitive dissonance that should not be underestimated, which is that such “irrational” tendencies tend to be reinforced when we are surrounded by others who believe the same thing we do. If just one person had believed in the “doomsday cult” perhaps he or she would have committed suicide or gone into hiding. But when a mistaken belief is shared by others, sometimes even the most incredible errors can be rationalized. — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 88

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s interest in Islamophobia and The New Crusades — social confirmation of collectively held false beliefs undergirds group-based prejudice. — connects to: Shared delusional claims persist because confirmation is socially rewarded — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror…, 363; Cognitive dissonance strengthens rather than weakens false beliefs under contrary evidence — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1798; Rational inference from others’ actions alone can push a whole group wrong — Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, The Misinformation Age: How False…, 286 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Shared delusional claims persist because confirmation is socially rewarded #corroborates (0.95) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 363
• Consensual beliefs gain perceived validity and social connection from being shared #corroborates (0.92)
• Beliefs gain validity from social endorsement and shared beliefs create social connection #corroborates (0.90) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2367
• Group membership socializes paranoia by collectivizing shared delusion #corroborates (0.90) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 156
• Perceived social support for prejudice blocks objective counter-information from changing beliefs #corroborates (0.88) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1917
• Socially shared illusion functions as a second reality for participants #expands (0.85) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 254
• Shared belief renders delusion indistinguishable from truth #expands (0.82) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 497
• Cognitive dissonance strengthens rather than weakens false beliefs under contrary evidence #expands (0.80) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1798
• Rational inference from others’ actions alone can push a whole group wrong #expands (0.80) — Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, The Misinformation Age, 286
• Evidence sharing alone drives groups toward uniform belief without conformity psychology #contradicts (0.80) — Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, The Misinformation Age, 208
• Recursive misperception of others’ intentions can erase objective truth from a social situation #qualifies (0.75) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 113
• False beliefs mostly persist through social transmission, not individual failings #qualifies (0.75) — Cailin O’Connor and James Owen Weatherall, The Misinformation Age, 30
• Increased contact builds mutual belief frameworks that reduce miscommunication and exploitation #contradicts (0.72) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 703
• Identical behaviors are cognitively encoded differently depending on group membership #complicates (0.72) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 554
• Perceptual inaccuracy in group perception indicates manipulation of social reality #expands (0.70) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 892