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Hammurabi42 t1_j9z7o8w wrote

Imagine you had a belief. Something like "The world will end on November 3rd."

Now, Nov. 3rd comes and goes and the world doesn't end.

What you might think would happen is you would realize you were mistaken and admit you were wrong and move on. However, if the original belief was something very important to you, or something that you had made part of your personality, then you may have a great deal of trouble letting that belief go. You are in a state of cognitive dissonance.

It should be noted that cognitive dissonance is an almost entirely subconscious thing. If you were fully aware it was happening, it would be easier to resolve.

What can cognitive dissonance lead to? Well, in my example above the person could deny they made a prediction, insist they didn't mean the current Nov. 3rd but some future Nov. 3rd, or maybe insist the world really did "end" but in a spiritual or metaphysical way that only special people like them have noticed.

Note: my example above is (loosly) based on a real study published in a book called "When Prophesy Fails" written in the 1950's that popularized the term "cognitive dissonance."

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Pippin1505 t1_ja0fuok wrote

Is it about "The Great Disappointment"?

When some US preacher had so convinced his flock that Jesus would came back on that specific date that some people sold their home ?

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Hammurabi42 t1_ja0gllx wrote

Actually, no. Usually when we hear about these "end of the world" groups they are based around religious beliefs but the group studied in the book was based around UFOs.

"The Great Disappointment" was over a hundred years earlier. The world sure does seem to end often.

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johrnjohrn t1_ja1wk26 wrote

Way more often than you might even realize.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events

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YEETAWAYLOL t1_ja3o0pi wrote

Im guessing the heat death of the universe would be a pretty sure bet for the end of the earth. Let’s hope I don’t get disappointed!

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johrnjohrn t1_ja3og02 wrote

Hell yeah. Heat death is metal as fuck. I'm pulling for that one.

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YEETAWAYLOL t1_ja3q3uc wrote

I just hope I don’t get put in a year 10^6800 textbook where they go: “look at this moron thinking the universe would end LOL!”

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johrnjohrn t1_ja48h8l wrote

Haha! I think often about the fact that farming was "invented" at some point, albeit by multiple civilizations simultaneously. But I think, "man what a bunch of morons to not have thought of it before." Yet here I am, completely incapable of making my pea plant produce peas. I def would have been culled from the herd early.

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ReneDeGames t1_ja6ajbz wrote

Hate to break it to you, but the earth will be long gone by heat death,

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YEETAWAYLOL t1_ja7u0ib wrote

Oh yeah? Then what’s your date? Also, I put apocalypse as the end of human life/life in general, so we could outlast earth and colonize another planet.

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