Self-deception about our own limits, not deliberate lying, drives overconfidence.
Evidence
Perhaps the students just could not admit their incompetence, so they tried to paper over it? But this seems unlikely, for when subjects were offered a $100 bonus for more accurately rating their skills, they still could not do it. What seems to be going on here is not mere deception, but self-deception. We love ourselves so much that we cannot see our own weaknesses. But is it therefore any surprise that to the extent we are emotionally attached to our political beliefs—and in fact may even see them as part of our identity—we will be reluctant to admit that we were wrong and may even be willing to put our own “gut instinct” up against the facts of experts? — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 114
Categorization
- XREF: The monetary-incentive null result is a powerful experimental finding connecting emotional attachment and identity to reasoning failure across the bias literature. — connects to: Lies we tell ourselves only work when we stop checking whether they are true. — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on…, 520; Genuine self-deception works by staying willfully uninformed, not by believing falsehoods — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 704; Self-deception requires precise knowledge of the truth being concealed, not ignorance — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1397 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Genuine self-deception works by staying willfully uninformed, not by believing falsehoods
#expands(0.82) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 704 - Genuine self-deception and intentional social deception are distinct phenomena
#expands(0.80) - Sincerity can be an active ingredient of self-deception rather than its opposite
#expands(0.78) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1405 - Self-deception requires precise knowledge of the truth being concealed, not ignorance
#contradicts(0.75) — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 1397 - Called self-deception often is public pretense designed to head off social reproof
#complicates(0.72) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 706