Information Help People Make

Read the three chapters below in the book by Travis and Aronson (2008).  It might be helpful to read over the Festinger and Carlsmith (1959) article that is used in your article review prior to reading the chapters (Aronson was Festinger’s student and much of the work is based on ideas in the classic article). Please discuss these chapters with these specific questions in mind:

• Tavris, C., & Aronson, E. (2008). Mistakes were made (but not by me): Why we justify foolish beliefs, bad decisions, and hurtful acts. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
  • Chapter 4: Good intentions, bad science: The closed-loop of clinical judgment
  • Chapter 5: Law and disorder
  • Chapter 6: Love’s assassin: Self-justification in marriage

1. Describe how self-justification affects science?  Apply these ideas to how you are going to conduct science in your dissertation or master’s thesis. You can also describe how these ideas generalize or recent reports where self-justification in science may have been seen.
2. Describe how self-justification affects the law?  Take these ideas and generalize them to other areas.
3. Describe how self-justification affects relationships?  Without going into too much personal information, how can this information help people make better (or worse) relationships?