Self-deception
June 7th, 2009
Nature loves deception. She weaves camouflage. Encourages disguise. Elaborate games of hide and seek are played out in rain forests, deserts, and suburban backyards for her creatures to secure mates, food, status, and safety. Everything from orchids, to moths, to we humans.
All of us deceive — big deceptions, little deceptions. Who hasn’t exaggerated a resume, or hidden feelings from a friend, boss, or spouse. Then there’s the excuse as to why you didn’t get that report in on time. Try to live a full day of nothing but the truth. You’d be impossible to your loved ones. Impossible to yourself.
Biologist Robert Trivers wrote, “One of the most important things to realize about systems of animal communication is that they are not systems for the dissemination of the truth.” Animal signals convey correct information, misinformation, or both.
Nature has given we humans an even more clever deceptive capacity – self-deception. We not only hide our truths from others, we are masters at hiding it from ourselves. Biologists consider self-deception an elaboration and improvement in our deceptive abilities. It provides a much needed check on our self-awareness.
As important as self-awareness is to both our well-being, and getting along with our loved ones, it also has its shadow. Awareness of every single motive, of all the biological/physiological mechanisms and sensory signals bombarding us would paralyze our capacity to act decisively. We’d never do the things we need to survive, to mate, to improve our lot in life.
It’s dog eat dog out there. With every attempt to get ahead, there’s a potential rival out there with the intent to get there first, or at least thwart your attempts. Want that job? That mate? Money back on your tax return?
Trivers writes, “Self-deception renders the deception being practiced unconscious to the practitioner, thereby hiding from other individuals the subtle signs of self-knowledge that may give away the deception being practiced.”
We play hide and seek with our own motives. Like expert investigators, we’ll build a case to support some action — a case that is so convincing that we can keep even ourselves in the dark about what we’re doing, and why!
We spin stories to deceive others and ourselves, so we can bypass conscience and self-awareness; so, we can get what we want comfortably. When was the last story you told where you were the villain, and someone else the hero? How many times in our stories of some misdeed are we the wronged party?
With many of our motives remaining unconsciousness, we are thus better able to hide deception’s signals. In essence, we increase the probabilities of meeting some need without the telltale signals that accompany our sometimes burdensome awareness. We even create entire belief systems with hidden self-serving biases.
As Triver’s writes, “The more skillfully these self-serving components are hidden from both the self and others, the more difficult it will be to counter them.”
Some common forms of self-deception:
Beneffectance: We all tell our stories as being beneficial and effective. We exaggerate our own role in a beneficial outcome, and minimize our responsibility when things go wrong.
Exaggeration: repeated tales of humanitarian accomplishments grow in the retelling. Memory can always be counted on to supply the new facts.
Illusion of consistency: We rewrite past experiences to make them seem consistent with present realities. Consistency gives the illusion that we make very few mistakes. We even add details to memories to alter new information that may be potentially derogatory.
Perception of relationships: We are altruistic. It’s someone else who is selfish.
Perceptual defense and perceptual vigilance: We see what we wish to see. We eagerly embrace any information that is self-satisfying. And, if it’s not? We have built in biases that will make it seem that way.
The best we can do? Own that we are one of nature’s creatures. Be honest, about our wonderfully irritating capacity, to tell stories that deceive ourselves as well as deceiving others..
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Trivers, R. (1985). Social Evolution. Menlo Park: Benjamin/Cummings.