109: The Slippery Slope of Self Justification

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In this episode Valerie reviews some fascinating ideas about the relationship between cognitive dissonance and self justification and applies these ideas to humanity, institutions, churches, and the LDS church.

She walks you through the following ideas:

1. why humans and institutions self justify
2. why people in leadership are especially prone to self justification
3. why entire communities get caught up in self justifying behaviors
4. the self-justifying tactics people and institutions use when they are called out for questionable behaviors
5. what can be done to overcome the tendency to self justify 

In this episode Valerie applies principles of “self justification theory” to make sense of both historical and current struggles within the LDS church where this concept seems to readily apply.  

This episode is intended to help faith expanding Latter-day Saints better understand the nature of their struggles as well as shine a light on typical phenomenon connected to the human experience that might be manifest on the faith journey. 

The book referenced throughout this episode is called

• Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions and Hurtful Acts, by Carol Tavris, Marsha Mercant, et al.

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