Why do we self-deception? The usefulness of this psychological phenomenon
A summary of the reasons why we frequently resort to self-deception.
It is clear that we have all, to a greater or lesser extent, tried to deceive ourselves at some point in our lives.
But what is the reason for this phenomenon? What is the point of trying to deceive the one person who knows everything about us, what we are thinking at any given moment and our future intentions? In this article we will try to answer these and other questions.
- Related article, "Are we rational or emotional beings?"
Why do we self-deceive ourselves on a daily basis?
Aristotle said that man is a rational animal, and indeed he is. But that does not free us from having among our beliefs some that are irrational, which already gives us some clue as to why we self-deception.
Indeed, on some occasions we prefer to renounce facts and rationality and embrace reasoning that makes no sense and defies all logic, trying to convince ourselves of them. and that defy all logic, trying to convince ourselves of them.
There is a clear difference between lying and self-deception, and that is that in lying there is an important component that changes everything: we know that what we say is not true. That is, there is an awareness of the validity of the argument (we know it is false).
However, with self-deception we are not aware of it, but rather, despite the evidence to the contrary, we have accepted as true something that is not true.
This is another reason why we self-deception, and it is a much more powerful mechanism than pure lying, since, as we are not aware of it, its consequences are much greater. not being aware of it, its effects can be much more profound than the lie itself.We adhere to the fallacious reasoning that generated it in the first place and therefore believe it to be true, when in fact it is not.
Ultimately, the question of why we self-deception is answered in a simple way: because it is a simple but very effective mechanism for certain effects on us. a simple but very effective mechanism for certain effects on ourselves in a rapid way.. We will understand this very well in the next point, as we explore the different ways we have of self-deception.
Forms of self-deception
To understand why we self-deception, it is necessary to know the utilities offered by the different types of self-deception that exist. Therefore, we are going to break down this concept according to its typology.
Adaptive self-deception
Probably one of the most frequent types. In this case the reason why we self-deception is simple, and is that it would be a way of adapting to a situation that has differed from the expectations we originally had of it.. It may be, for example, a job we applied for and whose conditions attracted us greatly, but once we were rejected, we began to realize that it was not really such a good opportunity and we kept finding "buts" in it.
The truth is that we liked the job before and we really like it now, but our mind works quickly to make the our mind works quickly so that the emotional impact of not having achieved our goals is lessened, making our desire diminish making our desire diminish and therefore the negative emotions we experience are less intense than they would be in the beginning.
Of course this can be applied to a multitude of situations, including, of course, love disappointments. Although it is true that in these situations many other factors come into play, it is curious the significantly different vision of a person before and after a disappointment in love, and here self-deception has a lot to say.
2. Avoid cognitive dissonance
When there is a mismatch between what we feel, believe and think, and our actions (our behavior), a discomfort called cognitive dissonance appears. One of the ways our brain anticipates these unpleasant feelings so that they do not manifest themselves, or do so in a more tenuous form, is self-deception, so here we have another powerful reason that answers why we self-deception.
Accepting a contradiction between our values, our ideals, our beliefs, with what we actually do, has a very high cost for our mind. for our mind. That is why self-deception is a perfect escape valve to make us see that, in reality, those values are flexible in certain situations, or that the actions we are carrying out are not as different from what we think as we might believe at first.
Obviously, this is a patch that will work for a certain period of time, but this repeated behavior will eventually bring the cognitive dissonance to the surface and the self-deception will definitely lose its effect, since it is not possible to maintain a difference between thought and behavior forever without repercussions for our mind.
3. Locus of control
We have all heard (or maybe even said) the following words: "I passed", as opposed to "I failed". They may seem similar at first glance, but they hide a very important difference, which refers to the locus of control. In the first case, that of the pass, the individual speaks in the first person, thus using an internal locus of control, i.e., he has passed on his own merits.
However, in the second example, a third person is used in a veiled way, "I have been failed", making it clear that the result was beyond his control and was the consequence of someone else's decision, in this case, the teacher's. Here the locus of control would be external. Here the locus of control would be external, so it is of no use what we do, because our actions do not change the final outcome.
This is a very clear example of why we self-deception, and it is that we sometimes do it to eliminate our own part of ourselves. sometimes we do it to eliminate our part of responsibility for an event that happenedThis is a very clear example of why we self-deception, and it is that sometimes we do it to eliminate our share of responsibility for an event, making the internal locus of control become external, when it really is not so. Neither the correction of the exam has been unfair, nor the teacher has a grudge against the student, or anything like that.
The real reason why the person has (not been) failed is because he/she has not studied enough. In addition, the most curious thing about this example is that it is much less common to hear the inverse formulas: "I failed" or "I passed", because we always tend to take credit for victories and look for excuses (self-deception) in defeats.
4. Distortion of reality
Sometimes, and depending on certain characteristics of the individual, a phenomenon that takes self-deception to its maximum expression can occur. It may be the case the case that the person tells a false fact to another subject, perhaps knowing that it is really a lie or even believing it in some way..
The issue, in this case, is that such a lie begins to be repeated and generalized, in such a way that the person who initiated it may assume it to be true. That is to say, the promoter of the false information ends up assuming it to be true and begins to act accordingly, taking for granted that the facts happened that way and not in any other way. First he constructs the story and then the story catches up with him, without remission.
This distortion may begin as a simple exaggeration in the telling of a story, the addition of certain details that differ from the truth, or even complete fabrications. In this type of people the reason why we self-deception has one more answer, which does not apply to the rest of individuals, and that is that for them it is a way of construct a reality that never took place, but that they assume it as if it were so..
When we talk about this level of self-deception, we could already find ourselves before a symptomatology typical of different psychological disorders that affect the personality of the individual, such as narcissistic disorder, borderline disorder or histrionic disorder. In all of them, among many other characteristics, very marked and sometimes easily detectable forms of self-deception can be observed in their stories.
Conclusions
After going through the different answers to the question of why we self-deception, we have found very different but all of them powerful motivations to carry out this action, since we have found that, to a greater or lesser extent, they lead to an improvement in our sense of stability, eliminating or reducing the negative component.
What must also be clear is that self-deception is something that arises automatically in all individuals, and can be of a mild and adaptive nature on many occasions, but it can also be seen in a much more aggressive version when it is part of a personality disorder.
Bibliographical references:
- Borges, M.R.H. (2007). The etiology of self-deception: Do I pretend to deceive myself or do my mechanisms deceive me? Teorema: International Journal of Philosophy.
- Saab, S. (2011). Modes of self-deception and reasoning: dual process theories. Philosophical analysis.
- Trivers, R. (1991). Deceit and self-deception: The relationship between communication and consciousness. Man and beast revisited, ed. M. Robinson & TL Tiger.
- Trivers, R. (2013). The folly of fools. The logic of deception and self-deception in human life. Buenos Aires. Katz Editores.
(Updated at Apr 12 / 2024)