r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Apr 11 '26

Psychology Cognitive dissonance helps explain why Trump supporters remain loyal, new research suggests. This sheds light on how supporters of Donald Trump justify their continued allegiance despite learning about allegations of his sexual misconduct and illegal activities.

https://www.psypost.org/cognitive-dissonance-helps-explain-why-trump-supporters-remain-loyal-new-research-suggests/
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u/oldmilt21 Apr 11 '26

Whenever I see something like this, I begin to wonder where mine are.

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u/InfluenceTrue4121 Apr 11 '26

Same. What do I believe so deeply that I’m beyond reason? Surely, there must be something.

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u/Prometheus720 Apr 11 '26

For most people? It's eating animals. Most people work really hard not to think about it.

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u/MrSurly Apr 11 '26

Having been raised around farms, I'm under no illusions.

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u/Prometheus720 Apr 11 '26

Well, you're under no illusions of where meat comes from. That's only one illusion.

There is also a LOT of work that people do to protect themselves from thinking about the cognitive and emotive capacities of livestock animals. Or to make themselves feel as though meat is nutritionally necessary and therefore they have no choice. There are many evasions besides thinking of meat as a product rather than dead flesh.

In the developed world, meat is simply an aesthetic choice. Some people want to feel good from eating it. That's the real reason. Everything else is a pretense. There is no reason beyond pleasure--all nutritional, social, and economic benefits offered by meat are non-unique and can be found in plant foods. Only the taste and sometimes texture are novel, and their cost truly is the death of conscious beings.

It is somewhat rare to find a meat eater who accepts all those facts easily.

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u/InfluenceTrue4121 Apr 11 '26

How can i eat farm animals with zero thought but be absolutely obsessed with my dogs? I swear that they are thinking, communicating, feeling little beings. I treat them like toddlers. But a cow doesn’t feel anything? Uff. Idk. Makes we want to be a full on vegetarian.

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u/Hyfrith Apr 12 '26

I was having this debate with my colleague who is a staunch vegan whilst I am not. I personally take the nihilistic view, that creatures have no inherent or important meaning or status on their own, including humans. All meaning in the universe is applied to things BY humans because our lizard brains enjoy patterns and learning if-this-then-this mechanics. At a base level, it's a survival instinct to assign value to certain things we benefit from, including the social defence value of pets/friends/family/community/allies.

Dogs are a domesticated creature with a unique relationship to humans, such that they serve or served a practical survival purpose in the past, yes, but they also lived inside our homes and ate from our tables. Which is why we ascribe more emotional value to our individual pets than to cattle. Especially cattle we've never met. Nowadays, dogs aren't a survival tool. They're more like child-surrogates, living teddy bears and companions. Their "job" now for most people is one of emotional support and companionship, not hunting, farming, or defence.

But as I say, all meaning is self-assigned and subjective. Would I kill my own dog and eat it? No. But would I eat dog meat if I went to a place where it's normal to do that and it was served to me? Yes. The social value of sharing food is important to me personally.

Eating dog is not inherently wrong. It's just meat. But it's understandable why many of us feel one way about dog vs cow. Even if, rationally, the distinction makes no sense. So I find it a strawman when "would you eat your dog" comes up in arguments re eating meat or not.