self-deception
With these 4 strategies we constantly lie to ourselves
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All people practice some degree of self-deception every day. We use these four strategies in particular to lie to ourselves.
We all know people of whom we think: they are lying to themselves again! And then we are firmly convinced that WE are always 100 percent honest – at least to ourselves. And that’s total nonsense. We all lie to ourselves on a daily basis. And we humans need this self-deception. Because if we didn’t lie to ourselves, it would be very difficult for us to master difficult situations and even to motivate ourselves for everyday life.
These little “white lies” are strongly related to our beliefs, which we need to stabilize our worldview. Of course, it does us good from time to time to think outside the box and to do, see or hear things that gently nudge our worldview and maybe even shake it. However, if we were to do this all the time, we would hardly be able to cope with our everyday life. With the small acts of self-deception we protect ourselves and thus ensure that life does not overwhelm us.
The two psychologists Francesco Marchi from the University of Antwerp and Albert Newen from the Ruhr University Bochum have the subject of self-deception for the journal “Philosophical Psychology” examined more closely. They analyzed four strategies with which we constantly lie to ourselves. All of them are about sticking to our beliefs, even when there are facts that clearly contradict them.
The 4 strategies of self-deception: How we lie to ourselves
1. Reorganization of beliefs
A simple example of what is called belief reorganization: A mother firmly believes that her daughter is very good at math. Now the daughter’s grades are falling, she has received several bad ratings in a row. If the mother were honest, she would at least consider the possibility that her daughter isn’t a math genius after all. Instead, she will probably look for the problem elsewhere: Either the teacher didn’t explain the whole thing well or the material was just too difficult for the class. The mother adjusts her interpretation of the facts to further fit her worldview with the mathematically talented daughter.
2. Selecting facts
So-called fact-picking is about how, in most situations, we humans pick the facts that support our worldview. We ignore everything that could possibly shake our own convictions. This behavior is often seen, for example, in corona deniers who ignore the scientific facts about the pandemic and only select individual statements or figures that support their personal convictions on the subject.
But of course not only conspiracy theorists use this strategy, but all people. The mother in the example would therefore possibly avoid talking to the teacher – because she assumes that he is the problem anyway. She deliberately ignores some of the (possible) facts on a topic.
3. Rejection of facts
The so-called rejection of facts goes one step further: Here we not only ignore unpleasant facts that do not fit our world view – we even discredit them. We question the sources and their credibility. To stay with the mother and her daughter, the supposed math genius: Here the mother might no longer ask about the grades of the next exams. Because she doesn’t care about the teacher’s evaluation anyway, she completely rejects it as a source.
4. Generation of facts
The fourth strategy of self-deception is so-called fact generation. This usually comes into play when the other three strategies have already failed. So we practically come up with completely new facts if the existing ones don’t fit into our worldview even after reinterpretation. We then generate new facts that support our beliefs. The mother could, for example, develop the inner conviction that the teacher himself gave a completely logical explanation for the daughter’s current drop in performance – even if he might have said something completely different.
The fine line between necessary self-deception and (self-)sabotage
To a certain extent, such maneuvers of self-deception are helpful and make our lives easier. We don’t have any evil or manipulative ulterior motives. “These are not malicious practices,” explains psychologist Albert Newen. “But a part of the basic cognitive equipment of humans in order to preserve the proven self-image and worldview.” We maintain these beliefs using the four strategies to stabilize our worldview.
The whole thing only becomes problematic if, in the long term, self-deception leads to us becoming stuck in certain beliefs that can harm us and those around us. After all, there are cases where a change in behavior is urgently needed – but we don’t tackle them because we close our eyes to the facts. After all, the daughter from our school example would be of more help in the long run if she received tutoring in math to catch up on the material she had missed, or if she had the chance to establish herself in other subjects. The mother subconsciously withholds both possibilities from her because, despite evidence to the contrary, she holds on to the false belief that her daughter is good at math.
Sources used: Philosophical Psychology, businessinsider.com