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When we explain our own behavior, self-justification allows us to flatter ourselves: We give ourselves credit for our good actions but let the situation excuse the bad ones.
|
230 |
 |
Self-justification is the route by which ambivalence morphs into certainty, guilt into rage. The love story has become a hate book.
|
243 |
 |
Without self-justification, we might be left standing emotionally naked, unprotected, in a pool of regrets and losses.
|
247 |
 |
Combine self-justifying perpetrators and victims who are helpless, and you have a recipe for the escalation of brutality.
|
272 |
 |
By looking at our actions critically and dispassionately… we stand a chance of breaking out of the cycle of action, followed by self-justification, followed by more committed action.
|
300 |
 |
Most people who get caught in a lie, mistake, or hypocritical dance feel sharp dissonance and are motivated to squirm out of it with a flurry of self-justification.
|
336 |
