Are you being honest with yourself?
Each of us, behind our souls, has some nuances of objective reality that we refuse to believe. Self-deception is a false belief that we have justified for ourselves. Such beliefs are designed to satisfy important psychological needs of the individual (for example, self-confidence). This article contains several common methods of self-deception.
The less you know the better you sleep
One of the most difficult challenges in achieving a goal is confronting negative feedback. Strategic ignorance can help maintain resilience. How? A person deliberately avoids information that can disrupt his motivation. For example, a couple at the altar saying "until death do us part" does not take divorce statistics into account.
Denial of reality
Denial is a psychological defense used against the outside world to create a perceived sense of security. Denial can be a defensive reaction to unbearable news (say, the news of a cancer). A person seems to say to himself: "This is not happening." An example is also an alcoholic who claims to have no problem with drinking.
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Excessive arrogance
Arrogant individuals believe that the world revolves around them, others adore them, and eventually they will come to the top. They are the ones who own the slogan "Jesus loves you, but me even more!" According to statistics, 90% of drivers believe that their driving level is above average, and 94% of professors at a large university consider themselves more competent than the rest. Out of touch with reality, optimism can have significant health consequences. In 2009, psychologist Lauren Nordgren found that among the group of people trying to quit smoking, those who rated their willpower especially were more likely to fail.
Making obstacles to yourself
This behavior can be seen as the opposite of overconfidence. If a person is not confident in his capabilities and is afraid to know their limits, he may refuse to perform actions that can reveal his true potential. In such cases, he tends to attribute success to his skills, and associate the cause of failure with external factors, such as lack of preparation.
A tendency to flaunt positive traits
People like it when they themselves and others perceive them in a favorable light. However, some highly valued personality traits (such as altruism and fairness) are outwardly invisible. And we take actions designed to demonstrate our tastes and preferences: we give alms to a beggar or change our facebook avatar in honor of the victims of another tragedy.
Selectivity in data selection
People tend to prioritize data that reinforce their beliefs and deny conflicting information. For example, people need more information to validate an unwanted idea than they need to.
Sour grapes
In the famous fable, the fox tries in every possible way to get to the cherished bunch, but all her attempts fail. As a result, the fox tries to convince himself that she does not really need these grapes. In the presence of dissonance of beliefs, the individual feels psychological discomfort and tries to reduce it. He is motivated by the preservation of a positive image of his own "I".
Me and others
Psychologists use the term "attribution" (or cause) to explain people in their lives. We tend to attribute our success to constant traits of our character, and our failures to coincidence. We say: “You didn't succeed because you didn't try enough,” and at the same time: “I didn't succeed because of a headache, because I was awake at my son's bed all night”. The alcoholic is happy to say to himself in excuse, "I just can't do anything."
Summary
A key aspect of self-deception is that people seek reinforcement in bias. Self-deception acts as a drug, dulling the feeling of harsh reality or allowing you to close your eyes to stubborn facts. After all, as Voltaire said many years ago, "Illusion is the first of all pleasures."
However, when we commit collective self-deception, its effect is amplified. For the sake of reinforcing their beliefs, people are grouped with like-minded people and draw information only from certain sources, leaving behind a considerable part of objective reality.
About the author: Dr. Shahram Heshmat, Distinguished Assistant Professor of Health Economics at the University of Illinois at Springfield.
Evgeniya Yakovleva
