109: The Slippery Slope of Self Justification

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In this episode Valerie reviews some fascinating ideas about the relationship between cognitive dissonance and self justification and applies these ideas to humanity, institutions, churches, and the LDS church.

She walks you through the following ideas:

why humans and institutions self justify
why people in leadership are especially prone to self justification
why entire communities get caught up in self justifying behaviors
the self-justifying tactics people and institutions use when they are called out for questionable behaviors
what can be done to overcome the tendency to self justify

In this episode Valerie applies principles of “self justification theory” to make sense of both historical and current struggles within the LDS church where this concept seems to readily apply.

This episode is intended to help faith expanding Latter-day Saints better understand the nature of their struggles as well as shine a light on typical phenomenon connected to the human experience that might be manifest on the faith journey.

The book referenced throughout this episode is called