Europe Needs to Overcome Its Cognitive Dissonance: Scott Minerd
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July 27 (Bloomberg) -- In the early 1950s, the Americansocial psychologist Leon Festinger conducted an experiment thatprovides a valuable insight into Europe’s current troubles.
He encountered a religious cult that believed UFOs werecoming to rescue its members from a cataclysmic flood that woulddestroy the earth. He infiltrated the group to research a theoryhe called “cognitive dissonance,” or the psychological tensionexperienced when people are presented with evidence thatcontradicts their assumptions or beliefs.