Let me start by prefacing the obvious: this is a rather difficult subject to break the ice into. I posit that we experience self-deception throughout our whole lives, but on differing levels and a multitude of subjects. It is a remarkably difficult thing to pinpoint the source of – or for that matter, a solution for. This is why I will look at it from several different standpoint with the hope of ever so slightly illuminating the reader to its causes and, hopefully, solutions. I know many of you would deny that you are lying to yourselves and therein lies one of the biggest difficulties in tackling this subject: our own ego. It is not a coincidence that my previous post gave an outline of what the ego is (at least the way I use this term and what I would further deliberate upon here ), for it lays the groundwork to help us understand and hopefully, even combat self-deception. From here on out, prepare yourself for a bit of introspection – be it discomforting or pleasant, I am unable to tell you in advance.

    Let us start by looking at some of the most common cognitive biases and how they manifest themselves when we try to assess ourselves. Firstly, confirmation bias comes to mind – a brief definition of it would state the following: the tendency to recall, search for, interpret and prefer information that confirms our preexisting beliefs or hypotheses, while being less favorable to alternatives. The great danger of confirmation bias is that it is essentially, invisible – you have to active look for it when judging something in order to even find yourself committing said bias. Therefore, it is one of the most common forms of self-deception out there – just think about how many times people have held onto their precious beliefs when faced with information that contradicts them – and how you have also done it. I am not stating this in an accusatory fashion, merely in a descriptive one – essentially, this bias is universal to human beings, but is most common to see with people dedicated to a certain ideology, religion or even being a fan of something ( it could really be anything, no need to give examples here, I hope).  How to escape the clutches of automatic confirmation, you may ask? Well, the solution is not as simple as one would like – you have to first identify all the things you hold strong beliefs in – be it political, cultural, be it interpersonal, religious, etc. Essentially, look at the core concepts you doubt least. After identifying which exactly they are you have to start questioning them – what compelled you to believe this, can you find an argument against it and weight it in contrast with an argument for it. I know it sounds like quite the laborious task, but it will eventually help you detect when you or someone else is committing to a confirmation bias.

    Another common cognitive bias is  in-group bias. Essentially it is one of the psychological manifestations of our evolved tribal tendencies, possibly related to the neurotransmitter oxytocin (also know as the “love molecule”). We tend to assign higher value and more positive qualities to people of a group we are in and in contrast, tend to be suspicious, fearful, even disdainful of others we don’t really know. This can be ascribed to our tribalistic nature and our desire to belong to a group – no doubt this has been experienced by everyone reading this. What we tend to overlook, though are the dynamics between the in-group and the out-group – often people from the in-group ascribe the out-group as their opposition, even if such a distinction makes no logical sense. From our longing to belong, we often automatically follow the group consensus, thus opening the doors to all sorts of cognitive biases, but most notably, overvaluing fellow members and shunning non-members. Have any collectives you have been a part of shown animosity  towards an out-group? Consider it, and you may just untangle yet another of your biases. Judge people on a individual basis, regardless of group dynamics and you will have a clearer view of yourself as a result.

    Even if you go through the work of analyzing your own beliefs and dissecting your biases, it is no guarantee of objectivity, for I do not believe the human brain is capable of absolutely unbiased cognition. Hell, we have no free will in the classical sense of it – though that’s a topic for another post. What I see as more important than informing you about your own biases and introspectively dismantling them is to show how easily we can be manipulated through them and how to avoid such influences (or how to use them). It is really frightening to try to peer into the depths of our psychology, as more and more unknowns surface to our conscious understanding and the deeper you probe your mind the more difficult it becomes to untangle this intricate web of stimuli, processing and the resulting conclusions and/or behaviors. As for the most beneficial standpoint in this matter, I would consider stoicism (of the variety Socrates and Plato  described) and stern individualism. These topics will be further disseminated in latter posts, but this is a potential direction to stir your interests in.

    I could go on to describe dozens of other cognitive biases, but that is not my intention here – it is merely to bring to your attention aspects of your own mind that would otherwise remain as the underlying shadowy substance, that you are too confused or afraid to thread. I could, of course, be using majorly hyperbolic and bombastic statements to seem overly intellectual. If I am doing that, tell me, so that it can be fixed. It is my own bias, after all. I want to show you the basic breakdown of cognitive biases and the common ways to deal with it. It all boils down to introspection, and when done right, there is no room for passion and emotionally charged sentiments. This does not mean that emotions are inherently destructive in my opinion, but to quote an unknown, but quite eloquent thinker: “Emotions are a great servant, but a terrible master.” None of what I have written should be accepted as accusatory of the reader, either – we all have biases of one sort of another, I’m not stating you personally have a failing because of it and should be ashamed of that. It is the actual opposite – bringing light to such discomforting topics helps us grow as people and sadly, barely anyone speaks of these things openly. Furthermore, when someone does speak openly about these things, they are usually boiled down to a politically acceptable bunch of feelgood-isms and do nothing of substance, but bury the actual problems and the sources for them deeper into our minds where they can fester and manifest as gross distortions of thought over time.

    I will end on a positive note – to me, the human mind is the greatest resource our species has and it breaks my heart to see it squandered, to see it beaten down into submission, to see it used to justify atrocities willing self-delusion. Objectivity is king and reality has shown it to be so, for it is what has been used for centuries by great philosophers, scientists, engineers, architects, artists, musicians, writers to propel humanity to the stage of our development. Let us not see the greatest resource on our planet go to waste on rampant consumerism, rabid tribalism or ideological warfare.

    When we look honestly within, only then can we distinguish reality from illusion in the wider world.