Have been thinking more about this theory of cognitive dissonance in relation to some of my own theories. Besides looking at just the functioning of the cultural immune system, I also want to look a bit more at maintenance, modification and fusion of story-systems (ie, religions).
The working definition I have for religious fundamentalism is that sometimes when people have a set of beliefs or a story-system, they will seek to maintain the purity of that story-system. That is, they will try to protect it from change. You could possibly term this “inertial tradition.” This means roughly that they seek to avoid cognitive dissonance. I also like to think about this via the analogy of “brand identity;” that each story-system has its own set of symbols and self-consistent rules which constitute its identity. Things which do not conform to that identity are automatically selected against.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is religious syncretism. This is what happens when multiple religions or story-systems come into close proximity to one another, modify each other, and eventually fuse into a new tradition. One of the best examples of this is Santeria, which is a Caribbean religion which consists of fused elements from Spanish Catholicism, native South American Indian beliefs and West-African Yoruba religion.
Syncretic religions like Santeria seem to be the result of cognitive dissonance. But, instead of avoiding the dissonant elements (as in fundamentalism), the dissonant elements are embraced and around them a new cognitive structure is developed.
I’m curious just what it is that makes some people more accepting of cognitive dissonance than others. What makes some people purposely seek out dissenting and alien viewpoints and accomodate them into their thinking, while others avoid them or try at all costs to nullify them?
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