Top Highlights

• we are justifying behavior that we know is wrong precisely so that we can continue to see ourselves as honest people and not criminals or thieves.
• Without it, we would prolong the awful pangs of embarrassment. We would torture ourselves with regret over the road not taken or over how badly we navigated the road we did take. We would agonize in the aftermath of almost every decision: Did we do the right thing, marry the right person, buy the right house, choose the best car, enter the right ca...
• Festinger’s theory is about how people strive to make sense out of contradictory ideas and lead lives that are, at least in their own minds, consistent and meaningful.
• Humans think — and because we think, dissonance theory demonstrates, our behavior transcends the effects of rewards and punishments and often contradicts them.