I’m sure you’ve been through this once: do something spontaneously, make a bad decision, or commit an act you’ll only regret later. You don’t have to be a teenager to do things that are beyond everyone’s comprehension, including yourself.
You may find yourself in a context that has led you in one way or another to do a certain thing, or it’s quite possible that your emotional state has demanded a reaction that isn’t. wasn’t exactly the right one.
- People are complex creatures and apparently endowed with balance and rationality.
- But the truth is that we do not always behave this way.
- And finding a justification for our actions when they are a little irrational is always difficult.
- However.
- There are several explanations as to why we behave irrationally.
- And it is worth understanding why this happens.
The halo effect is a very common cognitive bias, an example: we love a person, but we do not know him very well, however, the little we know about him is enough to believe that everything he does, says and thinks is also positive and good. We build a series of interpretations that are not always consistent with reality, but the attraction we feel for that person is enough to think that he is as good as the feelings that are in us.
All this leads us to acts and behaviors justified by the halo effect, because we think we are doing things for someone who really is worth it, this is certainly one of the most recurring mistakes among people and can happen in everyone’s life at any time.
Our lives and realities are full of contradictions; it is normal and also expected, there are people who know how to deal with these facts normally, interpret them and act on the right principles, without harming anyone, however, other people may not tolerate this ambivalence, which generates anxiety and restlessness. Do you have two contradictory ideas in mind?
We will give you an illustrative example: you love your partner, the person you live with. However, you are very attracted to a colleague. The attraction is so strong that you end up cheating. How can you withstand this dissonance?
People who don’t know how to face reality and prefer to keep dissonance will eventually seek an explanation that might be beneficial to them: I betrayed my partner because he didn’t want me enough, that would be a small justification for maintaining our own integrity. A way to feel good, even if you didn’t do it right. And then we ask ourselves: why have we behaved so irrationally?
There are many experiences, such as that led by Stanley Milgram, that show us how we can follow in the footsteps of a particular person or group, even when ideas are incompatible with our own principles and values Why would you do that?Because of the need to be part of a group, because of the pressure, for convenience, because it is no different, for maintaining the same idea or behavior of a certain group, this can seem very shocking the reality that normally occurs in our day to day, on a small or large scale.
Sometimes someone, or a group of people, may have pushed or incited us to commit an irrational act of greater or lesser importance, something we still wonder why we did it, obedience to authority can be a simple explanation.