On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 10:29 AM, Jos van den
Oever<jos.van.den.oever@kogmbh.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday 29 July 2009 08:24:37 Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
>> On Tuesday 28 July 2009, Jean-Nicolas Artaud wrote:
>> > Hello every one, or good evening in fact !
>> >
>> > On September the 26th, the Toulouse KDE Team makes a KAtelier as every
>> > last Saturday of the month.
>>
>> That caused a weird sort of cognitive dissonance... I thought you were
>> speaking about KAtelier, which is a sort of subset of KOffice distributed
>> to make the create apps palatable to the average artist :-).
> 'cognitive dissonance' is a discord between facts and desires. When it
> happens, you mold facts in your brain to feel less bad about them. Eg: you eat
> chocolate and know you'll get fat. You do not want to be fat: cognitive
> dissonance. So you convince yourself that a little bit of chocolate will not
> be so bad or that being fat is not so bad since you're already married anyway.

Actually it's slightly more interesting. Cognitive dissonance is a
state of mind where you unconsciously detect a difference between who
(you think) you are (want to be) and your actions. So it is about your
own personality, who you are, or more accurately: ideas you have about
yourself. You correct the dissonance by constructing/changing
cognitions (states of mind, thoughts, ideas, attitudes, beliefs, I
don't know the precise definition).

Eg in the chocolate example above - you eat chocolate. You know you'll
get fat. You don't want to be fat, *yet you eat chocolate*: this
inconsistency creates cognitive dissonance. You resolve the difference
between your actions and who you are by telling yourself a little bit
of chocolate will make a difference or that being fat is not so bad
since you're already married anyway.

The example they cited during classes was one you could actually use
to influence people:
- you are collecting for a charity. Go to the door, ask for money. 80%
will turn you down.
- you are collecting for a charity. Go to the door, and ask them to
sign for supporting the charity. 80% will sign, as it's cheap to show
their support that way. THEN ask for money. This time only 60% will
turn you down, as they've just shown their support, and what people
would they be if they didn't donate money to something they support?
It would create a cognitive dissonance: I support this but won't
actually do anything?

(if you want more tricks, try guilt: give people something small for
free. Then ask for a donation. They feel an obligation to return the
favor you just did them by giving them something, no matter how small
and usually useless. (reciprocity). Yes, this one and other tricks are
used a lot by charities)

(statistics made up on the spot)

> In this case you are simply talking about confusion.

Srry for the interruption ;-)

> Cheers,
> Jos
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