Self-deception

Self-deception is a process of denying or rationalizing away the relevance, significance, or importance
 of opposing evidence and logical argument. [W19]
Despite the paradoxical nature of self-deception, everyday examples are easily envisaged. A persistent hard drug user boasts he can kick his habit whenever he wants. A student who keeps skipping class insists she wishes to pursue an academic career. A husband who habitually cheats on his wife swears that he loves only her. Here, actors stubbornly deny what observers can readily perceive: that their problematic deeds imply character flaws.Such everyday examples highlight how self-deception is not merely accidental—a type of cognitive error. It is also motivated—a type of wishful thinking. In particular, the desire to maintain a positive self-view—to self-enhance—lies at the heart of much self-deception. To admit to a character flaw—to being, say, an addict, idler, or cad—entails a psychic cost, in the form of lower self-esteem or social shame. To avoid incurring that cost,the admission is avoided. Thus, every act of self-deception involves denial, a classic defence mechanism. [Gregg14]
Self-deceptive denials range from moderate to extreme. Suppose one pays a sizeable sum to see a movie, but the movie disappoints. The conclusion that one wasted money, or was foolish enough to do so, is unwelcome. It can, however, be avoided by concluding that the movie was better than it was. Such rationalizations are convenient ways of resolving otherwise dispiriting cognitive dissonances. More unqualified forms of denial surface in clinical cases of narcissism. Here, the motive to self-enhance predominates so strongly that arrogant self-justification becomes routine and invincible. [Gregg14]
>Self-deception is a special kind of motivational dominance in belief-formation. We develop criteria which set paradigmatic self-deception apart from related phenomena of auto-manipulation such as pretense and motivational bias. In self-deception rational subjects defend or develop beliefs of high subjective importance in response to strong counter-evidence. Self-deceivers make or keep these beliefs tenable by putting prima-facie rational defense-strategies to work against their established standards of rational evaluation. In paradigmatic self-deception, target-beliefs are made tenable via reorganizations of those belief-sets that relate relevant data to target-beliefs. This manipulation of the evidential value of relevant data goes beyond phenomena of motivated perception of data. In self-deception belief-defense is pseudo-rational. Self-deceivers will typically apply a dual standard of evaluation that remains intransparent to the subject. The developed model of self-deception as pseudo-rational belief-defense is empirically anchored. [Michel 9]
== Branching ==
* Deception
* Error
Category:Psychology
Category:Defense mechanisms