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“tough talk” such as “bring it on” and “wanted, dead or alive,” Bush said, “I think in certain parts of the world it was misinterpreted.” In October 2006, shortly before the midterm elections, the White House announced Bush would no longer be using his familiar “stay the course” line because it implied the administration was not “flexible” about Iraq policy. Nonetheless, in a press conference on October 25, with violence in Iraq at record highs, Bush said there would be no major changes in his overall strategy and that he was committed to “getting the job done.” When asked whether the United States was winning the war, he said, “Absolutely, we’re winning.”

2 The American Presidency Project (online), www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/ index.php, provides documented examples of every instance of “mistakes were made” said by American presidents. It’s a long list. Bill Clinton said that “mistakes were made” in the pursuit of Democratic campaign contributions, and later joked about the popularity of this phrase and its passive voice at a White House Press Correspondents dinner. Of all the presidents, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan used the phrase most, the former to minimize the illegal actions of the Watergate scandal, the latter to minimize the illegal actions of the Iran-Contra scandal. See also Charles Baxter’s eloquent essay, “Dysfunctional Narratives: or: ‘Mistakes were made,’” in Baxter (1997), Burning Down the House: Essays on Fiction. Saint Paul, MN: Graywolf Press.

3 Gordon Marino (2004, February 20), “Before Teaching Ethics, Stop Kidding Yourself,” in The Chronicle of Higher Education, p. B5.

4 On the self-serving bias in memory (and the housework study in particular), see Michael Ross and Fiore Sicoly (1979), “Egocentric Biases in Availability and Attribution,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, pp. 322–336. See also Suzanne C. Thompson and Harold H. Kelley (1981), “Judgments of Responsibility for Activities in Close Relationships,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, pp. 469–477.

5 John Dean, interviewed for Playboy by Barbara Cady, January 1975, pp. 65–80. Quote is on p. 78.

6 Robert A. Caro (2002), Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson. New York: Knopf, p. 886.

7 Katherine S. Mangan (2005, April 1), “A Brush With a New Life,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, pp. A28—A30.

8 See, for example, Sherwin Nuland (2003), The Doctors’ Plague: Germs, Childbed Fever, and the Strange Story of Ignac Semmelweiss. New York: Norton/Atlas.

9 Ferdinand Lundberg and Marynia F. Farnham (1947), Modern Woman: The Lost Sex. New York: Harper and Brothers, p. 11 (first quote), p. 120 (second quote).

10 Edward Humes (1999), Mean Justice. New York: Pocket Books.

CHAPTER 1

Cognitive Dissonance: The Engine of Self-justification

1 Press releases from Neal Chase, representing the religious group Baha’is Under the Provisions of the Covenant, in “The End Is Nearish,” Harper’s, February 1995, pp. 22, 24.

2 Leon Festinger, Henry W. Riecken, and Stanley Schachter (1956), When Prophecy Fails. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

3 Leon Festinger (1957), A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance. Stanford: Stanford University Press. See also Leon Festinger and Elliot Aronson (1960), “Arousal and Reduction of Dissonance in Social Contexts,” in D. Cartwright and Z. Zander (eds.), Group Dynamics (third ed.), New York: Harper & Row, 1960–1; and Eddie Harmon-Jones and Judson Mills (eds.) (1999), Cognitive Dissonance: Progress on a Pivotal Theory in Social Psychology, Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

4 Elliot Aronson and Judson Mills (1959), “The Effect of Severity of Initiation on Liking for a Group,” Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 59, pp. 177–181.

5 See, for example, Harold Gerard and Grover Mathewson (1966), “The Effects of Severity of Initiation on Liking for a Group: A Replication,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2, pp. 278–287.

6 For a good review of the research on this bias and its many applications, see Raymond S. Nickerson (1998), “Confirmation Bias: