self-deception

( Original article published in Good Young Man’s Poison Room-Philosophy Department )

Author: MK Kong
Difficulty:★★☆☆☆

I remember when I was a teenager, I would look into the mirror and feel something was wrong: "Why am I so ugly in the mirror? So unlike me?" Is it because the flat surface of the mirror cannot reflect my three-dimensional outline, so I look uglier? I look in the mirror and think I'm pretty handsome in the mirror, but I often think I'm much uglier in the photos. Why? Comparing my friend's photo with his appearance, I felt that he did not look ugly in the photo. I knew that the truth was that I looked much uglier than I imagined.

People tend to believe some lies

There are always times when people think that they are more handsome, smarter or more capable than the average person. This may give us more confidence to compete with others and avoid self-elimination in evolution, but it may also enable people to make mistakes. On the one hand, it can lead us away from the truth and make some wrong decisions. For example, imagine that when I was young, I ran to participate in beauty pageants, become a model, and dream of stardom because of "where did I get the confidence?" This will undoubtedly affect my life: I will be poor. On the other hand, when our self-worth is challenged, we are more likely to believe some lies: Maybe flat mirrors and photos cannot reflect my true appearance. When someone tells you that you look just like your photo, you may be tempted to believe that they are trying to put you down. These are self-deceptions.

Self-deception is the act of despising oneself

In the fiercely competitive business world, self-deception is even more common. Successfully improving the quality of a product is of course adding value to the product, but successfully packaging an inferior product so that it can be sold at a high price is also called "adding value to the product". When a salesman deceives himself into “adding value” to the product, he can feel more confident in his work and even make his sales look more convincing. In addition, deceiving oneself does not necessarily only occur when directly protecting oneself. For example, a mother might rather believe that her son has been framed than face the fact that he is a murderer. The act of protecting what you love also indirectly protects your achievements as a mother. The reality that the mother doesn't want to face is that her son is a terrible person. The reality that the salesman doesn't want to face is that his job is harming the interests of customers. The reality that most people don't want to face is that they are no more handsome or smart than the average person. Or capable. Although self-deception is bad, we can easily find excuses to endorse it. We deceive ourselves, usually because we subconsciously know that doing so will make us feel better, and life may be easier because of it. The price is to lose the courage to face the truth, weaknesses and mistakes, and become a coward. The philosopher Immanuel Kant even believed that self-deception is an act of contempt for oneself, because self-deception is equivalent to lowering one's conscience and reason below emotions--this is a fundamental insult to human nature.

NASA’s collective self-deception problem

Even though we know that self-deception is generally not a good thing, is Kant's accusation too harsh? Are we really responsible for deceiving ourselves? It’s possible that I don’t even realize that I’m deceiving myself! Am I also a victim of self-deception? This issue actually needs to be discussed. In addition, in recent years, scientists have paid attention to a type of self-deception that has received little attention in the past: collective self-deception. In 1986, the American space shuttle Challenger disintegrated in mid-air, killing all seven astronauts. The famous physicist Richard Feynman was assigned to investigate the accident. In his report, Feynman not only pointed out flaws in the shuttle's design, but also believed that the accident was due to collective self-deception hidden in the NASA system. Because NASA was obsessed with completing more missions to obtain funds, it tended to believe that the shuttle's design flaws would not cause disaster, and ultimately seriously underestimated the risks.

We can also ask: Is anyone responsible for collective self-deception? If so, who is it?

Reference: Robert Trivers, "Deceit and Self-Deception", pages 201 to 205. You might as well take a look at how the author describes the details of NASA’s self-deception back then.

The original article was published in Hao Ji Hao

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