[Moneyguy1]

Cognitive dissonance: "a state of tension that occurs whenever a person holds two cognitions (ideas, attitudes, beliefs, opinions) that are psychologically inconsistent" whish produces mental discomfort, ranging from minor pangs to deep anguish; people don't rest easy until they find a way to reduce it.

In other words, self-deception proves itself to be more powerful than deception.

Consider the current war in Iraq. The president and many members of Congress believe that we must "stay the course" and not "cut and run". We all make similarily irrational arguments about decisions in our lives: we hang on to losing stocks, unprofitable investments, failing relationships and unsuccessful relationships. Rational thinking would lead us to the point where we would simply compute the odds of succeeding from this point forward and then decide if the investment warrants the potential payoff. But we are not rational beings and fall into the "sunk-cost fallacy".

What if an individual actually fessed up instead of the non-personal "mistakes were made" defense? What if our president made this speech?

"This administration intends to be candid about its errors. For a wise man once said, 'An error does not become a mistake until you refuse to correct it'. We intend to accept full responsibility for our errors.....We're not going to have any search for scapegoats....the final responsibilities of any failure are mine and mine alone."

This speech was made, and the man who spoke it saw his popularity go up, despite the botched Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.

I recommend: "Mistakes were made (but not by me)" by Carol Tarvis and Elliot Aronson