The Social Animal

I finished up chapter three and chapter four.
Chapter three finished with ideas about presenting an idea first or last in an argument (first if long period of time is between presentation & decision, second if decision immediately after presentation), discrepancy in an argument, and characteristics of an audience (females more persuasive than males). Chapter four was about Self-justification. A main idea stressed in this chapter is that man isn't necessarily a rational being, but it is a rationalizing being. Humans have a need to be right, or at least think they are right. So this chapter tells about the cognitive-dissonance theory and the wide range of areas it has affect on.
An example i came across, on meself, is when i decided to go a cheer leading competition rather than my church league basketball game this past weekend. The basketball game was obviously more important to me than the cheer leading competition, but i chose to go to the comp. This created dissonance with my cognition "the game is more important" and "I am missing the game for the comp.". Since I am a rationalizing being, I had to decrease this level of dissonance. Once the decision to miss the game was irrevocable, I began to lower the importance of the game in my mind. To make the two thoughts more consonant, I focused on the positives of the comp., while ignoring positives of the game. I also had external justification for my decision. Since my girlfriend wanted me to go see her comp., my dissonance wasn't as high as it could have been.
I am glad i can now include cognition, dissonant, and consonant in my everyday vocabulary; Yay reading.

TOTAL READING TIME: 6 hr.

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