We crave consistency. You crave consistency and you can use this to your advantage. And you can see how this is tricking you if you look at your behaviors through the right lens. We're going to talk about that lens in today's episode. My name is Jonathan Cottrell. You're listening to Developer Tea and my goal on this show is to help driven developers like you find clarity, perspective, and purpose in their careers. When you believe one thing and you encounter something that goes against whatever it is you believe. Whether that thing is some other person that's providing you their different goals. Or if you're encountering direct evidence that seems to refute whatever it is that you believed. You make an assertion. You encounter evidence that somehow falsifies your assertion or at least discounts it to some degree. This is a very hard experience for humans. Now it may not feel hard in the moment. But what I mean by hard. In this case. Is that it's hard to accept. Those experiences for what they are. It's hard to accept the idea. That another person. Could be correct. Which would make us wrong. That's hard for humans to do. It's also hard for humans to just accept the idea that they were wrong on their own. It wasn't another person. That came along to let them know they were wrong. They encounter new evidence. And they reckon with the idea that they were wrong. In fact. This is so hard. That sometimes we forget. We've talked about this on the show before. Sometimes we forget. What our previous beliefs were. I can almost guarantee you. If you look back. 10 years or so. Especially if you're. You're. You're. You know. 20 or 30 years old. If you look back 10 years. It's very likely. That something that you believed 10 years ago. You reject. Now. Something that you. Stood by. Whether that was something that was taste oriented. Right. If something that was. Subjective in nature. And your tastes have morphed over time. Or something. More substantially concrete. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. If. But even if you were to look back at that time, it's very hard to figure out when exactly, what was the moment that you encountered that differing information. In some ways, we have these coping mechanisms, ways of tricking us into believing that things were consistent all along. And if we did change, we changed at exactly the right time. So this idea is sometimes referred to as cognitive dissonance. Some people might take issue with that label. Sometimes cognitive dissonance is used for a different set of dissonance where you have two competing images. Where one is making you think something is true and another is making you think a different thing is true. Your brain is trying to combine those two truths. This is where we get illusions from. There's some dissonance there. The important thing to recognize about cognitive dissonance is that we tend to find quick and efficient ways of resolving that dissonance. Now notice I didn't say accurate. We don't always resolve the dissonance through accuracy. We don't always resolve it through accurate means. Sometimes we choose to retain our existing bad, incorrect, wrong belief. Sometimes we choose to ignore the dissonance itself. To act like the competing image, the competing information is not even existent sometimes. Or at the very least is wrong. It's untrustworthy. One example that you've probably experienced of this kind of resolution process of cognitive dissonance is post-rationalization. Post-rationalization. In other words, looking back and justifying or otherwise explaining away a decision that doesn't necessarily have strong basis in fact for why it was a good decision. This often happens when two options are very close in terms of their utility or in terms of their desirability. Two options, maybe more than two options. And a person chooses one of the options and then post-rationalizes why that option was better. They might even start that rationalization process in order to make the decision. By the way, this is one of the reasons why product marketing is so important. Why product marketing, especially packaging, for example, in a grocery store is so important. Given two equal options, choosing the one that proposes a slight health benefit over another seems like a no-brainer. It gives you an easy out, an easy way to resolve what is otherwise cognitively dissonant. Now, this may not seem like a big deal when we're talking about. Choosing one cereal over another. But it can be a big deal when you're talking about how a hiring committee works. Choosing candidates and using this post-rationalization, not having a solid framework in place to determine who is a better candidate. And therefore, building a situation where a lot of cognitive dissonance is forced to be resolved. Now, a. Huge problem with our resolution of cognitive dissonance is that because it is uncomfortable. Because it's kind of a stressful state for humans to be in. We're not very likely to process that dissonance in a systematic way. We're not likely to employ a decision-making strategy if we don't think about that up front. If we don't imagine. The dissonance being sorted through. Being managed by that particular strategy. So there's obvious downsides to cognitive dissonance and the resolution of cognitive dissonance. Hopefully that much is clear. But what may not necessarily stick out right away in this conversation is that you can use cognitive dissonance to your advantage. You can use it as a tool. And not just to push other people into doing things. But. To create scenarios for yourself that are advantageous. We're going to talk about that right after we talk about today's sponsor. Remote works. This episode of developer T is sponsored by remote works. A podcast that tells extraordinary stories of teams that made the shift to flexible working. The way we work has changed forever. This is. This isn't just a cliche. And it's not just because of the pandemic. In each episode of remote works. Host Melanie green tells an insightful story about how people and companies are adapting. In this season of remote works. Stories that are related to the pandemic. For example. Over two and a half million American women. Left the workforce or they lost their jobs during the pandemic. You'll hear how they plan to get those jobs back. And how they're going to get back to work. We'll also look at the ways that companies are innovating to address environmental responsibility in a post pandemic world. And my favorite episode so far still is about your desk. These little details. Rather than the macro picture looking at the micro picture in this episode. What does your desk say about you? Do you have a messy desk? And do you feel guilty about that? Well, hopefully this episode will make you feel a little less guilty. But. Season three of remote works is out now. Go and check it out. Wherever you listen to podcasts. We'll include a link in the show notes. My thanks to remote works for their support of developer team. Cognitive dissonance. Creates a stressful environment. But. Stress is not always bad. In fact. We use stress as humans. All the time. We learn how to grow. From stress. We also use stress. In order to create. Incentives. You can think about stress as a detractor. Something that makes something. A little bit more difficult. One example of stress. Might be. Putting the candy. At the top of your pantry. This is something that we practice in my house. By putting the candy. At the top of the pantry. You have to undergo. A little bit of extra physical work. Which is a type of stress. To get a piece. Now that added stress. Might mean that. I'm going to. Get less candy. As it turns out. This is absolutely true. If something is more convenient. Then you're more likely to access it. So. This very basic concept. Of creating. An economic disadvantage. Is incentive. This is a strong concept. For behavior change. For yourself. And for others. And so if you want to create. Behavior change. Creating this. Idea of cognitive dissonance. In order to. Avoid certain behaviors. And encourage different behaviors. Is a good idea. There's been some. Interesting related. Research. In what causes people. To adhere to their commitments. And adhere to particular habits. That they care about. One of the most important findings. Is that when we describe ourselves. As. Let's say. A physically active person. I am. Physically active. It's more likely that people. Who describe themselves that way. Will stick with their habits. Than if they. Just said. I exercise regularly. Notice the subtle difference here. It's not a longer sentence. There's not really much. Different information. That you can gather from this. But by casting. The identity. Into the picture. In other words. Part of what I identify myself as. Is a physically active person. Now. Changing your identity. Is much harder. Than changing your. Activity. Think about that for a second. If I just said. I exercise. Regularly. Right. I very often. I exercise. Well it's easy for me to stop exercising. Because all I have to do is change that to. I don't exercise very often. There's not a lot that has changed about me. My identity. Through those two framings. But if I said. I am a physically active person. And then I started being a sedentary person. This is. A shift. It might seem subtle. But this has a profound effect. And part of the reason. That this effect exists. Is because of the cognitive dissonance. Between what we see ourselves as. Our identity. What we've attributed to. Ourselves. What we've kind of adopted as our values. And our actions. If we create. Some kind of commitment. That kind of lays out. What our values are. Or lays out. What we're planning to do. If we have this. Especially if it's visible. Or if we have some kind of reminder. Of this kind of commitment. Then it's much more likely. That we can create this positive. Cognitive dissonance. That helps us avoid behaviors. That would go against. Those values. When I describe myself. To my co-workers. As a long-term thinker. It creates cognitive dissonance. For me. When I try to take shortcuts. Or do something that's optimized. For the short term. And in order to. Resolve that cognitive dissonance. I have to go through the process. Of making. An argument. That goes against this. Value set. That I've attributed to. Once again. Back to my identity. Understanding. We're going to talk. Kind of at a meta level now. Understanding that cognitive dissonance. Causes. Bad things to happen. It's important to understand that. And separate that idea. From labeling. Cognitive dissonance. As a bad attribute of humans. Cognitive dissonance. Is. Simply an attribute of humans. It's not necessarily good or bad. What we do with it. And how we respond to it. How we use it. Is up to us. Thanks so much for listening. To today's episode of Developer Tea. A huge thank you. To today's sponsor. Remote Works. You can find Remote Works Season 3. In whatever podcasting app. You use. Speaking of podcasting apps. If you haven't subscribed to this podcast. Whatever you're listening to right now. Go ahead and subscribe. We do three episodes a week. It's easy to fall behind. If you don't want to miss out on future episodes. Like this one. Subscribing is the best way. To make sure that doesn't happen. If you would like to join. The Developer Tea Discord community. You can start to develop. These positive. Cognitive dissonance. Kind of stakes in the ground. With that community. Go check it out. Head over to developertea.com. Discord. And I'm sure that people would love. To exchange these ideas. With you in that community. Thanks so much for listening. And until next time. Enjoy your tea.