“A fox crept up to a vine. He gazed longingly at the fat, purple, overripe grapes. He placed his front paws against the trunk of the vine, stretched his neck and tried to get at the fruit, but it was too high. Irritated, he tried his luck again. He launched himself upward, but his jaw snapped only at fresh air. A third time he leapt with all his might — so powerfully that he landed back down on the ground with a thud. Still not a single lead had stirred. The fox turned up his nose: ‘These aren’t even ripe yet. Why would I want sour grapes?’. "The Greek poet, [[Aesop]], created this fable to illustrate one of the most common errors in reasoning. **An inconsistency arose when the fox set out to do something and failed to accomplish it. He can resolve this conflict in one of three ways: A) by somehow getting at the grapes, B) by admitting that his skills are insufficient, or C) by retrospectively reinterpreting what happened**. The last option is an example of cognitive dissonance, or rather, its resolution." -- --- **Tags** — [[quotes]], [[cognitive-dissonance]], [[story-bias]], [[teaching-anecdotes]], [[self-serving-bias]], [[confirmation-bias]] , [[because-justification]], [[effort-justification]], [[endowment-effect]] **Source** — [[202308101525 — B — The Art of Thinking Clearly]]