Hazing and its Unhealthy Relationship with Cognitive Dissonance

Leon Festinger, an influential American social psychologist, wrote, “We come to love the things we suffer for”. Festinger was referring to the result of the cognitive dissonance people feel when something we have worked incredibly hard to achieve turns out to be quite disappointing.

Cognitive dissonance is the feeling of discomfort people experience when our behavior becomes inconsistent with our self-concept, the perception of ourselves in the past, present, and future.

Typically, humans have rather high levels of self-esteem, which has proven to be a crucial aspect of mental health. Unfortunately, people with low self-esteem are more likely to develop anxiety, depression, and other forms of disordered thinking. A problem arises when this high self-esteem is challenged by behavior. Humans whole heartedly believe in the commonplace “I am a good person”, therefore when our actions contradict this statement, our minds are automatically filled with discomfort.

When actions threaten self-esteem, people must somehow find a way to eliminate the discomfort we feel. Often times, we resort to modifying our thoughts and beliefs about something in order to make it appear more appealing in our eyes. The occurrence of this process is even more likely when we have exerted large amounts of energy to acquire something or become something.

This phenomenon is better understood when explained in the context of examples. Take the puzzling relationship between hazing and fraternity loyalty. Hazing is a degrading, embarrassing and hurtful process. Logically, one would think that the subject of such initiation bullying would strongly dislike, even hate, those responsible for such actions. Surprisingly, the opposite it true.

Victims of hazing experience a blow to their self-esteem; they become ashamed of the insane requirements forced upon them in order to become a part of a community. Drinking beer until one vomits and crawling around on all fours on command of a fraternity brother, contradict the victim’s belief that they are “a smart, logical, and good person”. Therefore, the victim must somehow justify his past behavior.

And what better way to do this than to pledge their undying love for that fraternity? Due to the psychological presence of social cognitive dissonance, the more a boy endures during fraternity initiation, the more devoted he will be to that organization. In order to make up for the inner humiliation he feels for his coerced actions, he asserts that no fraternity’s greatness could rival the greatness of his own and that he has no better friends than his fraternity brothers. He convinces himself of the fraternity’s amazing brotherhood.

There have been numerous psychological studies concerning social cognitive dissonance. Due to the multitude of fantastic study examples, I decided to focus on examples of dissonance in everyday life rather than feature a specific study during this blog post.

This process occurs in our minds more often than we may believe and in less obvious ways than are revealed through fraternity hazing. After you have successfully made any type of decision, whether it is choosing between using a pen or pencil to write notes or choosing between attending a university located on the west coast or the east coast, your brain will ultimately do the same thing. You will attempt to justify your decision, stressing the positives of the option you chose while conveniently forgetting its drawbacks.

Not all of us will experience hazing, but we will all undoubtedly experience social cognitive dissonance. I find it extremely interesting to dive into my reasons for feeling some way about a topic or choice, and this process has shed some light on the inter-workings of my complicated brain. I hope you can take this knowledge and apply it to your future decisions as well.

Weapon Bias (2001)

This week I would like to explore a particularly interesting, yet controversial, social psychological study. In 2001, Dr. Keith Payne, a professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, conducted a study focussed on people’s automatic thinking.

Automatic thinking is considered non-conscious, involuntary, unintentional, and cognitively effortless. This is the type of cognition that occurs at the biological level when your heart continues to beat and your lungs continue to expand without being constantly reminded to do so.

But automatic thinking also appears when you walk down the street each day, passing by a plethora of people. Would you believe me if told you that even if it feels as though they were in your range of vision for a fraction of a second, you did, in fact, form a judgment about those people? Well, you should….because it’s true.

So, how does this topic of automatic thinking relate to social psychology? Isn’t social psychology is rooted in the situation, the way behavior is affected by certain environments? How do split-second judgments relate to social influence?

In Dr. Payne’s study, he identified racial bias as a form of involuntary, non-conscious, automatic thinking. The effects of racial bias on the social situation are extremely significant. Our perception of every social situation is governed by elements of automatic thinking such as racial bias. Therefore, social psychology and automatic thinking mesh harmoniously, they go hand in hand.

The 2001 study, entitled Weapon Bias, was not incredibly complex but produced groundbreaking results. Payne invited white participants to sit before a screen. These participants would first be shown a photo of a white face or black face; the faces would vary each time. Then directly after the face, a photo of a weapon (ex: a gun, a knife) or a tool (ex: a hammer, a screwdriver) was shown. The participants were asked to ignore the face that was revealed initially and to simply focus on distinguishing between a weapon or tool in the second photo.

The task seems easy enough, right? How hard could it be to identify a weapon or tool? The participants were only given a fraction of a second to see both pictures. The visual flashes were almost instantaneous. Such a minuscule time period was offered, because Payne intended to ensure that only automatic thinking capabilities were activated. Participants could only make snap judgments about what they saw.

Unfortunately, the color of the face shown did affect the participants’ ability to distinguish between a weapon and a tool. All participants made mistakes, whether they were offered a white or black face, proving that automatic judgments are often incorrect. But participants were more likely to make these mistakes after seeing a black face. Following the visual of a black face, participants were more inclined to classify the next image as a weapon.

Remember that these attributions were entirely involuntary and non-conscious. The participants did not actively choose to display racist tendencies; their actions were due to inherent automatic thinking.

While these results are far from flattering, almost disgusting, they were recorded from a valid scientific study. Social psychologists, and psychologists in general, aim to illuminate the faults in human thinking in order to better society. Accepting that racial bias is real and scientifically proven is the first step in improving a culture that is continually plagued by issues of racism and intolerance.

Is she really stealing that money?

Imagine you are a customer at a local deli. You and a middle-aged blonde woman are the only two customers in the establishment; you are both waiting in line for a sandwich. After taking her order, the owner rushes to the back of the deli, beginning work on her turkey and cheese sandwich. Suddenly, the woman becomes tense, her eyes scan her surroundings; she realizes that she is practically alone, except for you. But your presence is far from intimidating, and you do not seem to be lingering too close to the register.

Out of the corner of your eye, you see the blonde progressively move toward the register. She gravitates toward the tip jar, filled almost to the brim with dollar bills. You hope this suspicious behavior means nothing. The woman is just impatient, so she unconsciously drifted toward the register, you think. But your fears are realized as she slips her hand stealthily inside the tip jar, grabbing several bills.

So what do you do? How do you react? Do you call the woman out directly? Do you wait until she has left the building and then notify the owner of her malfeasance? Or, do you simply do nothing, leaving her nefarious deeds unchecked?

Most people would like to believe that they would undoubtedly choose the first option: making the business owner aware of the woman’s actions and stopping her from leaving with the tip money. This is the obvious “right” thing to do, the most moral choice. But truly evaluate that experience. Would you really have the courage to stand up to the woman?

If you are interested in seeing how other people reacted to this exact situation, check out this video clip from the TV show “What Would You Do?”. You might be surprised to see what action each person chose to take.

People often forget the immense power of the social situation. The field of social psychology attempts to understand that power and all of its elements. The accepted definition of social psychology is: the scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people.

Social psychology seeks to understand people at a level deeper than simply their personality characteristics, because they believe in the influence of the social situation. They believe that an individual is motivated and guided by more than just his or her personal morals, that they can be affected by the environment.  A person may think that they are brave and that stealing money from the tip jar is wrong, but when faced with the choice of standing up to a tip jar thief or not, they fall short. Social psychologists attribute this to the social situation.

Throughout this series of blog posts, I will provide you with an engaging yet informative understanding of social psychology as a whole. In each post, I intend to describe an individual study or experiment and its impact on the field. Prepare yourself for surprising results that will hopefully provoke deep thought about how significant the social situation is to your identity.