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Sandusky Scandal

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Submitted By jbull16
Words 1127
Pages 5
Josh Bullock
RHW 102
Dr. Tenger
23 October 2014
Sandusky Scandal Jerry Sandusky was once seen in the eyes of many as a well-respected individual, and an astounding assistant coach for the Penn State University football team. Once the scandal arose of him sexually abusing children, eventually leading to his conviction of sexual harassment crimes, his whole reputation and all that he had worked for his entire coaching career was lost. No one could really grasp what had occurred at first, especially those who worked with him, for so many years he was seen as such a remarkable coach, person, and as a role model for young people. Tavris and Aronson state in their book, Mistakes Were Made But Not By Me, “Because most people have a reasonably positive self-concept, believing themselves to be competent, moral, and smart, their efforts at reducing dissonance will be designed to preserve their positive self-images” (29). With Sandusky being put in a light as such an overall good person it was hard for individuals to think that he could do something so appalling. Leon Festinger, a social psychologist, is referenced by Tavris and Aronson in the opening chapter of this book saying, “The engine that drives self-justification, the energy that produces the need to justify our actions and decisions -especially the wrong ones- is an unpleasant feeling that Festinger called cognitive dissonance” (13). “Cognitive dissonance is a state of tension that occurs whenever a person holds two cognitions (ideas, attitudes, beliefs, opinions) that are psychologically inconsistent…” (13).
Cognitive dissonance is one of the key factors of human nature highlighted in Mistakes Were Made But Not By Me which explains opinions in the Sandusky case. No one wanted to say anything about the incident with Sandusky because their previous thoughts of him were so outstanding that they wanted to save his reputation. As reported by Justin Cascio in his article from the web page entitled The Good Men Project, he states that, “Sadly, the administrators who were notified worked only to cover up the crime and minimize the harm that their resident child molester—and beloved football coach—could do—but only what he did on campus.” The cognitive dissonance caused by believing that the Penn State coaching staff was so respectable and moral, but also believing the accounts of Sandusky’s attacks on boys, made the administrators make a decision on what needed to happen. Even though those who knew of this incident were of high ranking in the Penn State system and seen as morally right people who knew the difference between what is right and wrong, they chose not to do the right thing in this instance. They went against their own moral integrity and ultimately sacrificed their own reputation in order to save not only Sandusky’s, but the reputation of Penn State too.
Why did individuals who seem to have such high morals try and save this man when all things pointed to not only very wrong behavior, but of illegal actions as well? Tavris and Aronson write, “If the new information is consonant with our beliefs, we think it is well founded and useful: “Just what I always said!” But if the new information is dissonant, then we consider it biased or foolish: “What a dumb argument!” So powerful is the need for consonance that when people are forced to look at disconfirming evidence, they will find a way to criticize, distort, or dismiss it so that they can maintain or even strengthen their existing belief. This mental contortion is called the confirmation bias” (18). Confirmation bias is the tendency for us to favor information that confirms our preconceptions, even if the information isn’t correct. We gather information selectively and recall it from memory selectively, and we interpret information to favor our preconceptions. Sandusky represents all things that Penn State stands for and its overall astonishing history as a prestigious institution and the people in charge who hired him believe he is such an amazing individual overall. When the people in authority at Penn State were brought this information pertaining to the incidences with Sandusky the information simply went in one ear and out the other. It was just too hard to even fathom that this could have happened with someone like Jerry Sandusky.
In order to defend ourselves and protect something of great importance, even when there is proof going against it, our first instinct is to justify the situation. As Tavris and Aronson state, “Because most people have a reasonably positive self-concept, believing themselves to be competent, moral, smart, their efforts at reducing dissonance will be designed to preserve their positive self-images” (29). Self-justification takes place many times when attempting to try and validate ones actions especially if it goes against their morals or beliefs. When you spend so much time with someone who is seen as a genuine human being, just as Sandusky was seen by many, then a relationship is built with that person. If something then comes along that interferes with that bond and has the potential to break it up, which in this case are the charges against Sandusky, you are faced with the conflict between your opinions of that person and what you believe to be right and wrong. Everyone working at the university sees Sandusky as a member of the Penn State University family. When everyone acted to keep the crimes committed by one of Penn State’s most beloved coaches secret, they were simply trying to protect a member of their “family”. In doing so they had to go against what they thought to be morally right which took some justifying in order to be carried out. All of the individuals involved with covering up these horrendous crimes committed by Sandusky were without a doubt wrong in many ways, but in all of their mind’s their intentions of saving one of their own overcame any other ethic standard or moral that they held to be true. Just as Tavris and Aronson show how cognitive dissonance leads to the self-justification of acts, all of the people who attempted to cover up all that happened with Sandusky and his wrongdoings exactly correlates with how through self-justification of acts ones beliefs can be overruled by a strong feeling towards something or someone to protect reputations.

Works Cited
Cascio, Justin. "Cognitive Dissonance and the Sandusky Situation -." The Good Men Project. Word Press, 11 Nov. 2011. Web. 10 Oct. 2014.
Library, CNN. "Penn State Scandal Fast Facts." CNN. Cable News Network, 18 Sept. 2014. Web. 07 Oct. 2014.
Tavris, Carol, and Elliot Aronson. Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, 2007. Print.

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