David McRaney - You Are Now Less Dumb: How to Conquer Mob Mentality, How to Buy Happiness, and All the Other Ways to Outsmart Yourself

Self-Delusion

THE MISCONCEPTION: You are a being of logic and reason.

THE TRUTH: You are a being capable of logic and reason who falls short of that ideal in predictable ways.

This is a book about self-delusion, but also a celebration of it. You see, self-delusion is as much a part of the human condition as fingers and toes, and that is what we are going to explore here. Delusions, that is, not phalanges.

You assume you are intelligent, capable, rational, and full of the same glorious reason that invented calculus and ginger snaps. You were born with a chip on your shoulder, and youve grown into a sort of undeserved confidence over the years. Its a human foible that comes in many flavors, and Im assuming you are human. If you are a hyperintelligent dog, a member of an alien race, or a robot historian from our future, I apologize; please move on to the first chapter. If not, proceed toward your epiphany.

The human mind is obviously vaster and more powerful than any other animal mind, and thats something people throughout all human history couldnt help but notice. You probably considered this the last time you visited the zoo or watched a dog battle its own hind legs. Your kind seems the absolute pinnacle of what evolution can produce, maybe even the apex and final beautiful result of the universe unfolding itself. It is a delectable idea to entertain. Even before we had roller skates and Salvador Dal, it was a conviction in which great thinkers liked to wallow. Of course, as soon as you settle into that thought, youll accidentally send an e-mail to your boss meant for your proctologist, or youll read a news story about how hot dogstuffed pizza is now the most popular food in the country. Its always true that whenever you look at the human condition and get a case of the smugs, a nice heaping helping of ridiculousness plops in your lap and remedies the matter.

The truth is that the human brain generates a mind that is deeply flawed. There are some things you just arent very good at and never will be. Evidence of your dumbness is everywhere. Calculators, notepads, to-do lists, checkbooks, alarm clocksthere are hundreds of inventions and applications for sale in every marketplace to make up for your shortcomings. Entire fields of expertise exist to make up for a gulf in your abilities.

Our discussion of the scientific study of self-delusion is probably best led off with the concept of preconceived notions, so lets begin with a brief story about the thirty-first time Dartmouth College and Princeton University faced off in football. That game helped launch an endless fleet of expeditions into the human mind, many of which you will read about after this paragraph concludes.

Both founded in the mid-1700s, Dartmouth and Princeton are part of the Ivy League of schools in the northeastern United States. Youve heard of the other six schools: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Penn, and Yale. For most people in the country, Ivy League has become synonymous with the sort of people who wear fancy pants. The names are among the most desired bullet points on a rsum, but Ivy League began as a term sportswriters used for the eight schools in New England that tended to compete against one another exclusively in athletics and, well, most everything else.