Cognitive Dissonance, Part I (and Les Misérables!)

So last week I heard an interesting phrase, "Cognitive Dissonance". I wasn't exactly sure what it meant, but I is a very smart girl, and used that thinking organ in my head to use the word stems to come up with "split thinking". Actually, I was just about spot on.

Simplepsychology.com says:

"Festinger's (1957) cognitive dissonance theory suggests that we have an inner drive to hold all our attitudes and beliefs in harmony and avoid disharmony (or dissonance).

Cognitive dissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. This produces a feeling of discomfort leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance etc."

 And my face was like this:

 

btw, I think this guy looks kind of like Robert Downey Jr making a weird face. RDJ is preeetty hot, though...

Whoooaaa.

 Want more interesting stuff about it?

"Leon Festinger (1957) proposed cognitive dissonance theory, which states that a powerful motive to maintain cognitive consistency can give rise to irrational and sometimes maladaptive behavior.  According to Festinger, we hold many cognitions about the world and ourselves; when they clash, a discrepancy is evoked, resulting in a state of tension known as cognitive dissonance. As the experience of dissonance is unpleasant, we are motivated to reduce or eliminate it, and achieve consonance (i.e. agreement)." -simplepsychology.com

If right now you're thinking, "Whaaaa? No hablo español!" then let me explain it in simple terms.

You know that guy from Les Miserables, right? Javert? He was that law enforcement guy who kept on chasing the main character Jean Valjean and was singing all the time and who had an uncanny resemblence to Russel Crowe in the 2012 movie? (Oh, haha. Of course. That's because that WAS Russel Crowe.) Anyways, he ends up killing himself because Jean Valjean spared his life even after years of being chased by him. I have reason to believe that good ole' Javert had a cognitive dissonance thing going on. He could not reconcile his beliefs, everything he had ever believed all of his life to this new revelation. He couldn't bear to part from the cornerstone of his entire life, that had just been broken down by the actions of Jean Valjean.

Yes. Plain and simple. It was because all of his core beliefs were shattered, and because of the way he lived and his pattern of thinking, he could not come to terms with it. He killed himself because his moral statues and the things he had always lived by suddenly didn't seem to apply anymore, and that world seemed incomprehensible to Inspector Javert.

If you read the last couple of paragraphs and just thought, "blah, blah, blah", then here I go again:

Javert: Bad guys are evil no matter what. They can't change. I seriously gotta catch this guy to keep up my self-worth and purpose in life.

Jean Valjean: Seriously now, I've changed! I own a factory and help my workers, and then I take care of a dying prostitute, then adopt her abused little girl. I was only in prison for stealing some bread!

Javert: Too bad. You stole. Thief=bad. Sorry. I gotta chase you around some more, then arrest you.

 Jean Valjean: *has him captured, handed a gun, and given the chance to kill Javert and finally get rid of him* 

Javert: Go ahead, kill me. You can finally get your revenge on me for trying so hard to capture you. You're a criminal, a thief, so obviously you want to kill me. 

Jean Valjean: *cuts the ropes binding Javert's wrists and lets him go free* Listen dude, I really am a good guy. I'm letting you go. Heck, I'll even tell you where I live so you can try to arrest me later. But I'm not going to kill you.

Javert: ...

Later: Jean Valjean saves Marius' life but escapes with him from the barricade just to run into Javert again.

Jean Valjean: Look! I just saved this young man's life, even though he's been sneaking around with my adopted daughter. Then I dragged him all the way through a sewer to bring him to safety. Can you AT LEAST help me take him home before you arrest me?!?

Javert: ...

After they do so, Jean Valjean: Okay. You can arrest me now, but can I go home really quick first?

Javert: ...

After they do so: Jean Valjean goes in his house, but finds out that Javert is gone!

Jean Valjean's face:

 

Barney Fife: "That badge means something! Don't disgrace it!" 

Javert, later walking by the Seine and contemplating the meaning of life: Wait- wait now. Wait a second. Lemme get this straight-

Little Red Devil on left shoulder: Jean Valjean is a bad guy. You are supposed to arrest him. He is a thief, a criminal. CRIMINALS NEVER CHANGE. He's been running from the law all these years! Fugitive, thief, criminal=bad.

Javert: But wait-

Little White Angel on right shoulder: Jean Valjean is a good man. He made a mistake all those years ago, but he has changed. He was good to his factory employees, sheltered a prostitute, and adopted her daughter. He also selflessly saved Marius' life and spared yours. If that isn't the kind of good we need in the world, what is?

*He takes a moment to decide*

Javert: I have believed all my life that criminals never change. They are bad and evil. But now, the evidence that he is good and changed is right before my eyes. This is not what I have been taught. This is not what I have believed. What can I do with my life now? I AM BEGINNING TO RESPECT A CONVICT, AND I CANNOT STAND IT. Death is my only release from this confusion, this paradox!

*pause*


Javert: Dammit. He really must be a good guy.

*throws himself into the black, swirling River Seine*


"And must I now begin to doubt,
Who never doubted all these years?
My heart is stone and still it trembles
The world I have known is lost in shadow."


"Is he from heaven or from hell?
And does he know
That granting me my life today
This man has killed me even so?"
 

Javert's black and white thinking lead to his demise. He could not reconcile these two different beliefs. He had his personal beliefs embedded in him so strongly, but when he started believing in a different way, he couldn't bear it. And that my friends, is a pretty easy, straightforward example of cognitive dissonance. Right?

"In modern psychology, cognitive dissonance is the discomfort experienced when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting cognitions: ideas, beliefs, values or emotional reactions. In a state of dissonance, people may sometimes feel "disequilibrium": frustration, hunger, dread, guilt, anger, embarrassment, anxiety, etc." -Wikipedia

Javert is now the poster-child for this psychological idea.

(Now Russel Crowe, I think he is definitely très attractif  indeed... but I just seem to have a thing for older guys, I guess. Ignore me.)

So here are broth the movie version and the Original Broadway Recording version of his last song. Which one is better is still up for interpretation..... Which one do you guys like better??