From Dacher Keltner’s wonderful lessons at UCB.

From the social psychology lessons on iTunes U:

We are not neutral processors of information. Our pre-existing attitudes lead us to take in information that agrees with our attitudes and accept that while we reject information that contradicts our social attitudes.

A state of cognitive dissonance is harmful and painful. When we are in this state of painful dissonance we seek change and we engage in actions that restore our beliefs to a more consonant state.

Negative reactions are stronger than positive reactions.