| September 18, 2008 | ||
| 7:30 pm | to | 9:30 pm |
How to fix society? Simple, get people to change their dysfunctional attitudes and behaviors. The world’s foremost social psychologist explains why this is more complicated than it sounds.
When: Thursday September 18, 7:30-9:30 PM
Where: Atherton Union Reilly Room, Butler University 4600 SUNSET AVE., INDIANAPOLIS, IN 46208
Part of Butler’s J. James Woods Lecture Series in the Sciences and Mathematics
From Elliot Aronson’s bio:
Elliot Aronson’s primary research interests are in the general area of social influence. His experiments have been aimed both at testing theory and at improving the human condition by influencing people to change their dysfunctional attitudes and behavior (e.g., prejudice, bullying, wasting of water, energy and other environmental resources).
Professor Aronson is the only psychologist ever to have won APA’s highest awards in all three major academic categories: For distinguished writing (1973), for distinguished teaching (1980), and for distinguished research (1999). In 2002, he was listed among the 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th Century (APA Monitor, July/August, 2002). In 2007 he received the William James Award for Distinguished Research from APS.
Why does Provocate think you should attend this event?
More than his dozens of textbooks and seminal works in serious, academic social science, Provocate is drawn to the most recent book Prof. Aron co-wrote, Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts.
Aronson (and his co-author Carol Tavris) focus on self-justification rather than explicit and conscious lying. Their poster boy is President Bush, for his “tenacious clinging to a discredited belief” about his Iraq policy. But the phrase “mistakes were made” has been used by many presidents, including Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton. Alberto Gonzales’s grudging admission, “I acknowledge that mistakes were made here,” came too late to fit in the book. Even thinking of these five political figures suggests different positions along the scale of willful deceit and active self-delusion in order to relieve the strains of cognitive dissonance. Overt self-aware Nixonian lying maybe doesn’t look so bad when it’s contrasted to today’s self-deception.
If you think this sounds interesting, be sure to check out …
Another Great Figure of social science comes to town taking about war and peace … Johann Galtung on October 7.
Know before you go:
For an application of Aronson’s ideas, read Michael Shermer’s “Bush’s Mistake & Kennedy’s Error.”
