Why toeing the line can cost you your soul - an introduction to cognitive dissonance

Poor old Vince Cable. Gone are the days when he could boast a Facebook following that proudly stated "In Vince We Trust". Today's Vince looks decidely uncomfortable in his new governing position. 

Never was this more obvious than this week when he had to publicly state his voting intentions on the Coalition's plans for university tuition fees. As one of the authors of the Lib Dem manifesto, the government's new proposals will directly contradict his own personal beliefs, yet he is bound by convention to vote against his values in the interests of the Coalition. He is clearly facing a crisis of conscience over how to proceed.

I see this as a classic case of "cognitive dissonance", Leon Festinger's 1957 theory that human beings crave consistency in their beliefs. The theory goes that when something that you do jars with what you believe, this dissonance either forces you to alter how you behave or change what you believe. Cognitive dissonance is very painful and for Vince it means that very soon he will have to either rationalise his values to suit his new position or he will have to quit. Something's gotta give.

But it is not just politicians who face this challenge. Many working people at some point in their career have to park their beliefs in order to get a job done. And it is the repetitive suspension of core values that ultimately leads people to fundamentally change their beliefs over time. As Churchill once said: "If you are young and not liberal, then you have no heart; but if you are old and not conservative, then you have no brain." If this weren't a truism then there wouldn't be so many former hippies who now read the Daily Mail in Surbiton and vote Tory.

To fit into the mainstream and cover a mortgage and the weekly shop, liberal ideals often have to be left at the door. And if you're not careful, eventually they get abandoned altogether in favour of an easy life. Think about it for a second. How long could you do a job that goes against your very core belief system? I don't know... maybe being an arms dealer? You might think you would never do such a thing, but what if it was called a "product manager" in the defence sector? You might just cope by rationalising it and looking at the "bigger picture": the status; the pay; the commute; the benefits - until you no longer remember what you didn't like about it in the first place. Dilbert explains this with clarity in this strip:

So why is this important? For me cognitive dissonace is a key reason why people lose their connection to the natural environment. For example: you may hold the core value that biodiversity is precious and should be protected, you may even be a member of the RSPB or WWF, but to do your job you may inadvertently harm the environment through the materials you source or the waste that your organisation creates. It's not your fault, it's the company's - you're only doing your job. But you have to live with it and to do so, you have to shift your values or leave the company, or the cognitive dissonance will get too much. And this is how your work can sever the connections you hold as a human being to your values.

Just think of our Vinnie: to remain "loyal" to the governing body that he represents, he needs to toe the line and vote against his instincts. And in the process lose his soul.

There just might be another way. Perhaps there is. It's called tempered radicalism... But more on that another time.