 What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, I like to talk about stuff that I'm interested in, all right? And some things that I'm really interested in are mental health, addiction recovery, but I'm absolutely fascinated with psychology. And to get a little bit more specific, I'm really interested in learning more about the cognitive and behavioral aspects of psychology. And basically that means, why do we think the way we think? Why do we do the things that we do? And something that has always been something that is on my mind is, why are we so irrational, right? Why do we think such irrational things? Why do we do such irrational things? So those of you who don't know me, I am a recovering drug addict. So I ask myself, I look back at my history and I try to understand, why did I keep snorting these pills and destroy my life when I knew it was bad for me, right? I worked at a rehab for a little over three years. I watched this play out with thousands of clients sharing their stories and, you know, the hundreds of clients who would relapse and say, why would they do this? This is so irrational, right? Like you were in treatment, you saw that things were going well. Why would you do this? But in the broader scope of things, why do we stick up for people and completely neglect the facts of a situation, right? Like I think a great example is, look at Donald Trump, right? Trump supporters, I don't think they're stupid, but I ask myself, how do intelligent people neglect the facts and just completely support this guy and make excuses for these behaviors, right? So I was recently reading this book called Mistakes Were Made But Not By Me. It's by these two amazing psychologists and it actually brought to memory this situation with Logan Paul that surprisingly is on my mind a lot. I've mentioned it in previous videos, all right? So let's discuss, let's get inside the minds of Logan Paul fans, but again, like the reason that I love learning about this stuff and the reason why I try to look at the way I'm judging others is because I beep, I flip it and I'm like, okay, Chris, how are you doing the same things, right? So anyways, those of you who don't remember, Logan Paul, he used to do a lot of vlogs. I think he just started vlogging again. Anyways, he took a little trip to Japan and he terrorized the whole area of Japan. And he ended up taking a trip to the Suicide Forest, all right? And yeah, something that I'm really interested in too, by the way, and I want to do some research is why does Japan have such high suicide rates? Because a lot of the research I do, a lot of people compare the culture of Japan and they say, oh, look how they handle these situations. It's so much better. And that makes sense to me, but what doesn't make sense is why suicide rates are so high. Anyways, back to this story. Logan Paul, he ends up finding a body in Japan while he's vlogging and he films that body, right? And a lot of backlash happened. It caused ripples throughout mainstream media. I think that was the start of one of the many apocalypses and everything like that. But everybody's sitting there like, how could somebody go there and film a body, right? And it was like in the thumbnail and it was up for like, I don't know, a while before YouTube actually took it down. I think if I remember the story correctly, it was even on the trending page, right? So when this happens, you think nobody, absolutely nobody could support this dude. There is not one person out there who would say what this dude did was okay, right? So I can't remember how long it was after. Like this story was like two or three years ago. So bear with me. All right, I'm trying to tap into the little hippocampus and pull some memories out, all right? But a few days after it happened, I believe it was, he came on and he made an apology video, right? And it was just completely out of character of him. A lot of people criticized it and said, you know, scripted or whatever. And like me, I don't like judging apologies because they are what they are. You know, I think we get to in the nitty gritty of what they should have said, what they shouldn't have said and dah, dah, dah, dah, because an apology, especially to that massive amount of people, like you're never going to please anybody. But anyways, here's the part that's always on my mind because he says this. For my fans who are defending my actions, please don't. They do not deserve to be defended. So after that, after that, after he says that, after he tells his fans not to defend him, not to stick up for him because he, he did such an atrocious thing, like the Logan Paul crew, like all his fans out there were like, screw that, Logan, you're dumb. We're going to stick up for you. And I'm like, what? What? Right? Like this is, this is like the pinnacle of human irrationality, right? Telling people, don't stick up for me, I screwed up. And they tell you, the person they idolize, no, screw you, I'm going to stick up for you. And that baffled me. And like this, this is on my mind a lot. I still remember it like it was yesterday, the reaction on Twitter and everything like that from his fans. I'm like, what? Like, but it's not about this constantly being on my mind. But when I think of like human irrationality, I always think of that situation always. So anyways, in mistakes were made, but not by me. Basically, the entire book is about our good old friend called cognitive dissonance. All right, this is a psychological theory. I might dive into it a little bit more and kind of explain the roots of it. But behaviorism with B.F. Skinner was a really big thing. And then this dude, I can't remember his name off the top of my head, but he came around. He's like, Hey, I think that, you know, behaviorism is cool and all, but let's look at this dissonance, right? So what is cognitive dissonance? Cognitive dissonance is when you have two ideas in your head that don't quite go together, right? So what happens is, is we start to justify the one that has the least amount of pain for us, right? Like, this is how we lie to ourselves. And our brain just creates this whole story because our brain doesn't like being in this dissonance state, right? It's like, No, let me figure this out. So when I look at the Logan Paul situation and his fans doing this, like, dissonance theory would assume or predict that what happens is, is most people, most people, unless you're struggling with like severe depression or a lack of self-esteem or anything, most people aren't going to say, I'm stupid, right? Most of us think that we're smart. Most of us think that we're intelligent, right? So put yourself in the shoes of a Logan Paul fan when this is all going down and watching this dude that you look up to admit he was wrong and admitting he screwed up. So in that situation, we have to realize it's not so much about how they view Logan Paul, it's how they were viewing themselves, okay? So we have this sense of self, right? I am a good person. I'm a giving person. I'm a caring person, right? I am a smart person, okay? So when Logan Paul admitting that this was a terrible thing, the fans in their head is saying, well, how could I like somebody who did something so terrible, right? See the dissonance? I'm a smart person. So why would I follow somebody who did something so stupid? So that is when we start to create this story in our head, right? And I would imagine, obviously there's no way for me to, you know, know this for sure. There's just a theory, right? Is that, no, I'm a smart person. When I supported him after this happened, that was a smart move. So the most logical thing to do is to double down on this idea and still defend Logan Paul, even though he doesn't want me to defend him, right? See, like I said, it's not so much about Logan Paul, but it's the way the audience was seeing themselves. There's a great story from another book that I absolutely love. It's called The Craving Mind written by Dr. Judson Brewer. He's a great dude. I interviewed him when my channel first started years ago, right? But anyways, in his book, he explains this story about like he loved like the Tour de France. Like I've never met anybody who loves the Tour de France, but he loved the Tour de France. And when Lance Armstrong, like Lance Armstrong was like his dude, and when Lance Armstrong got caught doping and he admitted to doping, right? Judge shares his story in his book about how he's like, no, no, that, that can't be true, right? Like that, that there's got to be some mistake. Maybe he was pressured into saying this, down and out of that, all these things, right? And there's that dissonance again. So I want you to think about somebody like Dr. Judson Brewer. He is like a neuroscientist, right? He's a smart dude. So that's where that dissonance comes in. Like he's a smart guy. How could he, you know, be a fan of somebody who was cheating or so? Obviously doping, you see what I mean? Like it's really fascinating. And I've talked about some of this stuff a little bit on my Instagram stories lately. And I have another video or two that I'm going to make around the subject of cognitive dissonance. Like one of them involves repressed memories and false memories. I might do one about this like religious cults type thing that was absolutely mind blowing, but this one psychologist predicted exactly what was going to happen. But again, this video is not an attack on Logan Paul's fans. Whenever I learn about these things, I try to look at myself and say, Oh, wow, like why, why am I so irrational? Why do I do the things I do or think the way I think when I'm presented with evidence, right? And after just finishing an entire book about cognitive dissonance, it helps me like step back and look at different situations. For example, like right now, I don't know if you could tell, but I'm down 12 pounds. I've been trying to eat better, going to the gym, staying on that New Year's Eve resolution. My goal at the end of the year is to have lost 50 pounds by the end of 2020, right? And you know, it hasn't happened as often as it used to when I would diet, but like every now and then I just have like a cheat day, right? I've probably only have like one or two, like, but like, Oh my God, I'm going to puke. And I sit there and I'm like, why would I do that? Why would I do something so irrational? I know that I'm trying to lose weight. I know that I want to lose weight. So why would I do something so irrational? You see what I mean? So it's not so much about judging others, but when we notice it in others, it's important to, in my opinion, to turn that script back on ourselves and say, what irrational things do I do? What have I done that's completely irrational, right? Why did I stay in that relationship even though it was clear that it was toxic? All these other things, why did I stay at that job that treated me like garbage for 10 years? All these different things. Like, so it's really easy to look at others, but I try to take that and then look at myself and what's going on in my own life. So hopefully that gives you some stuff to think about. All right, but anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you want to check out either of those books I mentioned, mistakes were made, but not by me or the craving mind, they'll be down in the description below. All right, but if you liked this video, give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And a huge, huge thank you to everybody out there supporting the channel over on Patreon, everybody who supports by buying my mental health books over at therewiretsoul.com, or getting the merch from the merch store like this comfy, cozy, warm hoodie. All right, thanks again for watching. I'll see you next time.