[Paleopsych] REBT cognitive distortions

Sat Oct 23 19:49:12 UTC 2004

Bush Supporters Still Believe Iraq Had WMD or Major Program,
Supported al Qaeda
(in spite of the facts on the ground- skh)
Even after the final report of Charles Duelfer to Congress saying that Iraq 
did not have a significant WMD program, 72% of Bush supporters continue to 
believe that Iraq had actual WMD (47%) or a major program for developing 
them (25%). Fifty-six percent assume that most experts believe Iraq had 
actual WMD and 57% also assume, incorrectly, that Duelfer concluded Iraq 
had at least a major WMD program. Kerry supporters hold opposite beliefs on 
all these points.
Similarly, 75% of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq was 
providing substantial support to al Qaeda, and 63% believe that clear 
evidence of this support has been found. Sixty percent of Bush supporters 
assume that this is also the conclusion of most experts, and 55% assume, 
incorrectly, that this was the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission. Here 
again, large majorities of Kerry supporters have exactly opposite 
perceptions.
These are some of the findings of a new study of the differing perceptions 
of Bush and Kerry supporters, conducted by the Program on International 
Policy Attitudes and Knowledge Networks, based on polls conducted in 
September and October.
Steven Kull, director of PIPA, comments, "One of the reasons that Bush 
supporters have these beliefs is that they perceive the Bush administration 
confirming them. Interestingly, this is one point on which Bush and Kerry 
supporters agree." Eighty-two percent of Bush supporters perceive the Bush 
administration as saying that Iraq had WMD (63%) or that Iraq had a major 
WMD program (19%). Likewise, 75% say that the Bush administration is saying 
Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda. Equally large 
majorities of Kerry supporters hear the Bush administration expressing 
these views--73% say the Bush administration is saying Iraq had WMD (11% a 
major program) and 74% that Iraq was substantially supporting al Qaeda.
Steven Kull adds, "Another reason that Bush supporters may hold to these 
beliefs is that they have not accepted the idea that it does not matter 
whether Iraq had WMD or supported al Qaeda. Here too they are in agreement 
with Kerry supporters." Asked whether the US should have gone to war with 
Iraq if US intelligence had concluded that Iraq was not making WMD or 
providing support to al Qaeda, 58% of Bush supporters said the US should 
not have, and 61% assume that in this case the President would not have. 
Kull continues, "To support the president and to accept that he took the US 
to war based on mistaken assumptions likely creates substantial cognitive 
dissonance, and leads Bush supporters to suppress awareness of unsettling 
information about prewar Iraq."
This tendency of Bush supporters to ignore dissonant information extends to 
other realms as well. Despite an abundance of evidence--including polls 
conducted by Gallup International in 38 countries, and more recently by a 
consortium of leading newspapers in 10 major countries--only 31% of Bush 
supporters recognize that the majority of people in the world oppose the US 
having gone to war with Iraq. Forty-two percent assume that views are 
evenly divided, and 26% assume that the majority approves. Among Kerry 
supporters, 74% assume that the majority of the world is opposed.
Similarly, 57% of Bush supporters assume that the majority of people in the 
world would favor Bush's reelection; 33% assumed that views are evenly 
divided and only 9% assumed that Kerry would be preferred. A recent poll by 
GlobeScan and PIPA of 35 of the major countries around the world found that 
in 30, a majority or plurality favored Kerry, while in just 3 Bush was 
favored. On average, Kerry was preferred more than two to one.
Bush supporters also have numerous misperceptions about Bush's 
international policy positions. Majorities incorrectly assume that Bush 
supports multilateral approaches to various international issues--the 
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (69%), the treaty banning land mines 
(72%)--and for addressing the problem of global warming: 51% incorrectly 
assume he favors US participation in the Kyoto treaty. After he denounced 
the International Criminal Court in the debates, the perception that he 
favored it dropped from 66%, but still 53% continue to believe that he 
favors it. An overwhelming 74% incorrectly assumes that he favors including 
labor and environmental standards in trade agreements. In all these cases, 
majorities of Bush supporters favor the positions they impute to Bush. 
Kerry supporters are much more accurate in their perceptions of his 
positions on these issues.
"The roots of the Bush supporters' resistance to information," according to 
Steven Kull, "very likely lie in the traumatic experience of 9/11 and 
equally in the near pitch-perfect leadership that President Bush showed in 
its immediate wake. This appears to have created a powerful bond between 
Bush and his supporters--and an idealized image of the President that makes 
it difficult for his supporters to imagine that he could have made 
incorrect judgments before the war, that world public opinion could be 
critical of his policies or that the President could hold foreign policy 
positions that are at odds with his supporters."
The polls were conducted October 12-18 and September 3-7 and 8-12 with 
samples of 968, 798 and 959 respondents, respectively. Margins of error 
were 3.2 to 4% in the first and third surveys and 3.5% on September 3-7. 
The poll was fielded by Knowledge Networks using its nationwide panel, 
which is randomly selected from the entire adult population and 
subsequently provided internet access. For more information about this 
methodology, go to www.knowledgenetworks.com/ganp 
<http://www.knowledgenetworks.com/ganp>.
Funding for this research was provided by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Steve Hovland
www.stevehovland.net

-----Original Message-----
From:	Michael Christopher [SMTP:anonymous_animus at yahoo.com]
Sent:	Friday, October 22, 2004 7:55 PM
To:	Paleopsych at paleopsych.org
Subject:	[Paleopsych] REBT cognitive distortions

Can't remember what book this was from, something on
REBT (Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy)...These are
"Cognitive distortions as disempowering thinking
patterns":

1. Over-generalizing: jumping to conclusions on little
evidence or without facts
2. All-or-nothing thinking: Polarizing at extremes.
Black and white thinking. Either-or thinking that
posits options as two-valued choices
3. Labeling: Name-calling that uses
over-generalizations which allow one to dismiss
something via the label, or to not make important
distinctions, or that classifies a phenomenon in such
a way that we do not engage in good reality-testing
4. Blaming: Thinking in an accusatory style,
transferring blame, guilt, and responsibility for a
problem to someone or something else.
5. Mind-reading: Projecting thoughts, feelings,
intuitions onto others without checking out one's
guesses with the person, over-trusting one's
"intuitions" and not granting others the right to have
the last word about their internal thoughts, feelings,
intentions, etc.
6. Prophesying: Projecting negative outcomes onto the
future without seeing alternatives or possible ways to
proactively intervene, usually a future pacing of
fatalistic and negative outcomes.
7. Emotionalizing: Using one's emotions for filtering
information.
8. Personalizing: Perceiving circumstances, especially
the actions of others, as specifically targeted toward
oneself in a personal way, perceiving the world
through ego-centric filters that whatever happens
relates to, speaks about, or references oneself.
9. Awfulizing: Imagining the worst possible scenario
and then amplifying it with a non-referencing word,
"awful" as in, "This is awful!"
10. Should-ing: Putting pressure on oneself (and
others) to conform to "divine" rules about the world
and life, then expressing such in statements that
involve "should" and "must".
11. Filtering: Over-focusing on one facet of something
to the exclusion of everything else so that one
develops a tunnel-vision perspective and can see only
"one thing". Typically, people use this thinking style
to filter out positive facets, thereby leaving a
negative perception.
12. Can't-ing: Imposing linguistic and semantic limits
on oneself and others from a "mode of impossibility"
and expressing this using the "can't" word.

Anyone who can find one of the above that isn't a
constant feature in the current election cycle gets a
cookie.

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