Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Cognitive Dissonance and the Iraq War

AP Poll: Military Kin Likelier to Back War
People with friends or relatives serving in Iraq are more likely than others to have a positive view of a generally unpopular war, an AP-Ipsos poll found.

This isn’t a surprise. Social psychologists have known for a long time that people tend to adjust their beliefs to be consistent with the circumstances of their lives.

Wikipedia’s article on cognitive dissonance summarizes it well: “In brief, the theory of cognitive dissonance holds that contradicting cognitions serve as a driving force that compels the human mind to acquire or invent new thoughts or beliefs, or to modify existing beliefs, so as to minimize the amount of dissonance (conflict) between cognitions.”

Here’s how I explain it: People will believe whatever they need to believe in order to live in the world in which they’re forced to live.

So, it’s really no surprise that people with family members serving in Iraq tend to be more supportive of the war. They have to support it. The alternative is believing their loved one is endangering his life for no good reason — and that’s just too painful a thought for many people to live with day in and day out.