It was a sunny Sunday afternoon and I was sittin' in a pub with a rollercoaster depressive-creative woman in one of her more stable moods and getting introduced to this succession of wonderful women (esther, karen, zoe, tang and sowmya -I hope you're readin' this) absolutely lolling happily in the high spot of post-pubescent male life (its been a calmish life so far, I must say), lunchin' on pork and swimming in beer, I was a content man. Until he happened. (if you think HE's going to be turn out to be handsome hunk with honey drop eyes….you should be reading cosmo!).
He turned out to be this bearded man with a booming laugh and a seemingly inimitable air of dope and genius about him (I am sorry but this one is NOT gonna be about the women!) and the conversation inevitably veered to love and sex, and to my liberally middle-classed mind- the astonishing exclusivity of these two. (nope - its not about love and sex either - I did recommend the damn cosmo, right?). Anyway, said bearded person was holding forth on some theory that involved him making quadrants with love and sex as the dimensions - the theory itself is another story - but suddenly he thundered ".........this sort of denial is well explained by a term called cognitive dissonance!!!" implying by his tone that us mere mortals couldn't possibly know what it meant. Reading my open-mouthed shock as an unquenched thirst for knowledge, he went on to explain it as "post-decision rationalizing" to feel better about the decision .
OW! I managed to gather my senses and stutter that CD was actually "post decision (purchase) concern/dissatisfaction about decision and possible looking at alternatives at next purchase". (this may not have been the best way i could put it but i was a few down myself).
He looked down his bushy beard to locate the mortal who had dared voice doubts
He turned out to be this bearded man with a booming laugh and a seemingly inimitable air of dope and genius about him (I am sorry but this one is NOT gonna be about the women!) and the conversation inevitably veered to love and sex, and to my liberally middle-classed mind- the astonishing exclusivity of these two. (nope - its not about love and sex either - I did recommend the damn cosmo, right?). Anyway, said bearded person was holding forth on some theory that involved him making quadrants with love and sex as the dimensions - the theory itself is another story - but suddenly he thundered ".........this sort of denial is well explained by a term called cognitive dissonance!!!" implying by his tone that us mere mortals couldn't possibly know what it meant. Reading my open-mouthed shock as an unquenched thirst for knowledge, he went on to explain it as "post-decision rationalizing" to feel better about the decision .
OW! I managed to gather my senses and stutter that CD was actually "post decision (purchase) concern/dissatisfaction about decision and possible looking at alternatives at next purchase". (this may not have been the best way i could put it but i was a few down myself).
He looked down his bushy beard to locate the mortal who had dared voice doubts
"ARE YOU FROM MARKETING, BOY?" .... "er..yes" ...." I AM A BEHAVIOURAL SCIENTIST, AND NOT ONE IN A PARTICULARLY ARGUMENTATIVE MOOD EITHER BUT I WILL SAY THIS - ALL YOU MARKETING BOYS DO IS READ STUFF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND FULLY AND TRY TO USE IT TO MAKE SILLY THEORIES TO TRY AND SELL MORE TOOTHPASTE".
Well - he may have had something there but my sunny sunday afternoon had graduated gently to a pleasant evening but my mood had a taken an arc rather more steep and a hue much deeper. Of course, it improved with some unselfish ego massage by karen but that wasn't enough to gloss over the painful fact that my own smugness could be shattered by another's rather more deeply set one.
Well - he may have had something there but my sunny sunday afternoon had graduated gently to a pleasant evening but my mood had a taken an arc rather more steep and a hue much deeper. Of course, it improved with some unselfish ego massage by karen but that wasn't enough to gloss over the painful fact that my own smugness could be shattered by another's rather more deeply set one.
But what was good about the damn tiff is that the realization that b-school can take you within a sniffer's distance of actual knowledge - and that can be pretty rewarding - as long as you don't think of it as the last bloody word on anything.
Post this sordid episode, I can only fantasize about how that evening would have turned out if he was wrong and ended up grovelling at my feet for more knowledge or - at the opposite end of this miniscule spectrum of knowing and not knowing - wonder about how I would have felt about my existence I hadnt a damn clue about whatever he was talkin' about!
"Absolute knowledge" - utter fiction, I tell you,
Post this sordid episode, I can only fantasize about how that evening would have turned out if he was wrong and ended up grovelling at my feet for more knowledge or - at the opposite end of this miniscule spectrum of knowing and not knowing - wonder about how I would have felt about my existence I hadnt a damn clue about whatever he was talkin' about!
"Absolute knowledge" - utter fiction, I tell you,
