science

Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me)

Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) rather than just read about it. In short: Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) is a 2007 non-fiction book by social psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson. It deals with cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, and other cognitive biases, using these psychological theories to illustrate how the perpetrators (and victims) of hurtful acts justify and rationalize their behavior.

Key takeaways

Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) is a 2007 non-fiction book by social psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson. It deals with cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, and other cognitive biases, using these psychological theories to illustrate how the perpetrators (and victims) of hurtful acts justify and rationalize their behavior. It describes a positive feedback loop of action and self-deception by which slight differences between people's attitudes become polarized.

Topics and people mentioned The doomsday cult described in When Prophecy Fails The MMR vaccine controversy and Andrew Wakefield Conflict escalation in marriage and intergroup relations Day care sex abuse hysteria, alien abduction memories, and false memory syndrome Statements by Al Campanis and Mel Gibson justifying racism Confabulation of autobiographical memory False certainty in pseudoscience Self-justification and conflict of interest in medicine and politics George W. Bush and the Iraq War Justification of aggression, war, and torture Criminal interrogation, the pseudoscientific Reid technique, and false confessions Trials, capital punishment, police perjury, and miscarriage of justice Oprah Winfrey and her involvement in the James Frey controversy Carol Dweck's research on mistakes and learning

Reception Philosopher Daniele Procida described the book as an "immensely engaging and intelligent volume" and "a genuinely illuminating contribution to the study of human nature" but also criticised the book's informal style and sometimes outdated assumptions. Michael Shermer, in the Scientific American, wrote that Tavris and Aronson brilliantly illuminate the fallacies that underlie irrational behavior. A review in O, The Oprah Magazine praised the book for "the scientific evidence it provides and the charm of its down-to-earth, commonsensical tone.” A review in The Guardian described the book as "excellent" and suggests the quotation, "If mistakes were made, memory helps us remember that they were made by someone else,” should be printed on autobiographies and political memoirs as a warning to the public. The British comedian and novelist Alexei Sayle listed the book among his six favorites, recommending it as "endlessly fascinating, if you're interested in politics."

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me)

In research: Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2007 English-language non-fiction books, 2007 non-fiction books, Books about bias, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) in simple terms?

Why does Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me) matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me).