PERCEPTION & REALITY -Cognitive Dissonance & Animal rights
Hi, here we meet again for a awareness oriented blog written by one who truly believes that animals must be loved , cared the way we nurture ourselves he is a vegan enthusiast and loves animals dearly his name is , Ameya Deshpande ,this blog explains about cognitive dissonance and animal rights in very simple words which will hopefully make you turn into a better human being who not only cares about themselves but other creatures also....
We have several movies based on psychosis (Shutter Island, anyone?) in
which the protagonist’s jumbled thoughts and deluded thinking results in
him/her getting in serious trouble. Some of us end up feeling sorry for
these characters whereas others simply enjoy the roller coaster ride that
these films end up offering.
Little do we realize that we are all the victims of this psychological
inconsistency in some ways. We often notice contradiction in our actions
and beliefs but prefer to turn a blind eye towards the same. This
contradiction is what we call ‘cognitive dissonance’.
Cognition is a piece of knowledge such as thought, personal value or
behavior whereas dissonance simply means inconsistency. I hope it’s
now easy to understand that cognitive dissonance simply means
inconsistency in our thoughts and actions. This dissonance could happen
when you do something that goes against a value that’s important to you.
Or maybe you learn a new piece of information that disagrees with a
long-standing belief or opinion.
The cognitive dissonance theory was first proposed by Leon Festinger in
1957, who stated that a powerful motive to maintain cognitive
consistency can give rise to irrational and sometimes maladaptive
behavior. To understand it more clearly, he infiltrated a cult that
believed the world would end in a flood, but that they would be saved by
an alien race. When the flood didn't come to pass, some cult members
became even more devout, believing that the aliens had in fact chosen to
save the entire planet in concern for the cult members. You can see here
the need of these cult members to achieve consonance (or agreement)
between held beliefs and events and the steps they took to reduce or
eliminate the unpleasant feeling of dissonance.
Unfortunately, this phenomenon isn’t just restricted in some of these
cults but can be observed all around us. For example, let’s consider the
way we treat different animals. Most of the people in the world don’t
mind killing chicken, pigs and goats for food but would protest against
the killing of sparrow, dogs or cats. Some of these people will try to
rationalize this psychological inconsistency by claiming that dogs make
good pets and have more IQ than chicken, pigs, cows, goats, etc. but
then can’t justify this when they are told that pigs have more IQ than
dogs and make equally good pets (if not better). Similarly, people find it
okay to drink milk that comes from the udders of cows and buffaloes but not any other mammal (say, elephant) which they justify by saying that
cow/buffalo milk is more nutritious and healthier but research shows
that there are several mammals that make far richer and nutritious milk
but aren’t exploited because we consider them as ‘wild’ animals.
Humans dislike feeling discomfort. If they cannot ignore it, or actively
avoid situations and information likely to increase it, they must take
• changing their behavior;
• changing their thoughts or beliefs that conflict with their behavior;
• or adding new beliefs which justify their behavior.
Many of us like to call ourselves ‘animal lovers’ and yet we don’t mind
exploiting many of them for meat, milk, eggs, etc. on a daily basis.
That’s mostly because we aren’t told how they are mistreated, abused
and killed in the slaughterhouses. However even when many of us are
made aware of the animal cruelty there are 4 possible ways the people
tend to react:
1. Changing their behavior (no longer consuming animal products),
2. Justifying their behavior by changing the conflicting cognition
(E.g., "It's natural to eat animals and I'm not killing them myself,
anyway."),
3. Justifying the behavior by adding new cognitions (E.g., "I'll go
volunteer at an animal shelter to tilt the scales in favor of my being
a true animal lover! I will feed stray dogs and cats which will make
it okay for me if I eat flesh of other animals."),
4. Ignoring or denying any information that conflicted with existing
beliefs ("Animals don't suffer at slaughterhouses. They don't even
know what's happening! Butchers kill them humanely and don’t
make them suffer at all!").
I personally figured that option 1 is the best way to let go of my
psychological discomfort and cognitive dissonance. Sadly, many of us
choose options 2,3 and 4.
So which one are you going to choose?
Soo let's dive into this blog and understand it.
“One of the hardest things in life is to let go of
what you thought was real.”
what you thought was real.”
We have several movies based on psychosis (Shutter Island, anyone?) in
which the protagonist’s jumbled thoughts and deluded thinking results in
him/her getting in serious trouble. Some of us end up feeling sorry for
these characters whereas others simply enjoy the roller coaster ride that
these films end up offering.
Little do we realize that we are all the victims of this psychological
inconsistency in some ways. We often notice contradiction in our actions
and beliefs but prefer to turn a blind eye towards the same. This
contradiction is what we call ‘cognitive dissonance’.
Cognition is a piece of knowledge such as thought, personal value or
behavior whereas dissonance simply means inconsistency. I hope it’s
now easy to understand that cognitive dissonance simply means
inconsistency in our thoughts and actions. This dissonance could happen
when you do something that goes against a value that’s important to you.
Or maybe you learn a new piece of information that disagrees with a
long-standing belief or opinion.
The cognitive dissonance theory was first proposed by Leon Festinger in
1957, who stated that a powerful motive to maintain cognitive
consistency can give rise to irrational and sometimes maladaptive
behavior. To understand it more clearly, he infiltrated a cult that
believed the world would end in a flood, but that they would be saved by
an alien race. When the flood didn't come to pass, some cult members
became even more devout, believing that the aliens had in fact chosen to
save the entire planet in concern for the cult members. You can see here
the need of these cult members to achieve consonance (or agreement)
between held beliefs and events and the steps they took to reduce or
eliminate the unpleasant feeling of dissonance.
 |
| Most people don't want Truth but want a constant reassurance that what they believe is truth.. |
Unfortunately, this phenomenon isn’t just restricted in some of these
cults but can be observed all around us. For example, let’s consider the
way we treat different animals. Most of the people in the world don’t
mind killing chicken, pigs and goats for food but would protest against
the killing of sparrow, dogs or cats. Some of these people will try to
rationalize this psychological inconsistency by claiming that dogs make
good pets and have more IQ than chicken, pigs, cows, goats, etc. but
then can’t justify this when they are told that pigs have more IQ than
dogs and make equally good pets (if not better). Similarly, people find it
okay to drink milk that comes from the udders of cows and buffaloes but not any other mammal (say, elephant) which they justify by saying that
cow/buffalo milk is more nutritious and healthier but research shows
that there are several mammals that make far richer and nutritious milk
but aren’t exploited because we consider them as ‘wild’ animals.
Humans dislike feeling discomfort. If they cannot ignore it, or actively
avoid situations and information likely to increase it, they must take
steps to reduce it by:
• changing their behavior;
• changing their thoughts or beliefs that conflict with their behavior;
• or adding new beliefs which justify their behavior.
Many of us like to call ourselves ‘animal lovers’ and yet we don’t mind
exploiting many of them for meat, milk, eggs, etc. on a daily basis.
That’s mostly because we aren’t told how they are mistreated, abused
and killed in the slaughterhouses. However even when many of us are
made aware of the animal cruelty there are 4 possible ways the people
tend to react:
1. Changing their behavior (no longer consuming animal products),
2. Justifying their behavior by changing the conflicting cognition
(E.g., "It's natural to eat animals and I'm not killing them myself,
anyway."),
3. Justifying the behavior by adding new cognitions (E.g., "I'll go
volunteer at an animal shelter to tilt the scales in favor of my being
a true animal lover! I will feed stray dogs and cats which will make
it okay for me if I eat flesh of other animals."),
beliefs ("Animals don't suffer at slaughterhouses. They don't even
know what's happening! Butchers kill them humanely and don’t
make them suffer at all!").
I personally figured that option 1 is the best way to let go of my
psychological discomfort and cognitive dissonance. Sadly, many of us
choose options 2,3 and 4.
So which one are you going to choose?
After I had read his written document I asked him , "But I'd like to ask you ,can this option hold validity -One can limit dairy if cannot stop it totally ??"
• www.healthline.com
• www.plantbasedbride.com
• www.psychologytoday.com
He answered my question by using simple set of words, He made me understand why totally cutting down dairy is essential rather than just eliminating few dairy products and I thought many people would have the same question like me in their mind so here's how he explained ,"In the case of dairy, decreasing the consumption will not result in less cruelty to all the cows but would mean that farmers would buy less number of cows but the ones they've bought will be exploited and milked as much as possible.
So the suffering caused to a cow will still be the same(although the number of cows has decreased). Obviously cutting down is a step towards elimination. But if we can get same amount of nutrients from plant-based sources it kind of becomes unnecessary."
After that smartly drafted answer I realized that be it regarding any matter we must sort it out completely because things left halfway aren't good enough .
So yeah if you are trying to cut down a bit of dairy it's really great but if you dive deeper in the vast ocean of vegan world you will find many substitutes to dairy ,Of course there are many things to be put in place yet but still taking a step towards veganism is a proud one ,sooo even if you don't follow veganism at least respect the one who follows it ,for what they have sacrificed in order to help create better World and if you have some time, I would really suggest on behalf of Ameya Deshpande that please use that time to explore about why veganism is only way to stop cruelty and we know you will surely have a positive impact of it on yourself....
Sources: • www.healthline.com
• www.plantbasedbride.com
• www.psychologytoday.com
"Don't make your perception be a reality for yourself "- Ms.ThinkingMinds
Written by -Ameya Deshpande
Edited and Published by -Ms.ThinkingMinds
Link to my Instagram page-https://www.instagram.com/thinkingminds_29
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