Joseph Hallinan

Kidding Ourselves recaps studies about the delusions we have about ourselves and how they can be a positive thing – and quite normal. I was reminded of my father’s doctor, who told him he had a 50-50 chance of beating cancer when the chances were much slimmer. Later the doctor told him, “I knew you’d give up if I told you your true odds.” But Dad didn’t give up and survived the cancer. (The author does not say, however, that self-delusion is always a winning life strategy.)

I show more found the chapter “Drunk with Power” enlightening. Our public library is currently struggling with two trustees who believe they have power and are acting in ways that are quite destructive. Yet, they seem oblivious to the citizenry’s concerns (and disdain) and are convinced their actions are good for all concerned and even appreciated.

“Power tends to diminish perception and perspective, slowly snuffing out the ability of those who have it to detect what others around them are thinking and feeling,” writes the author. Knowing that doesn’t solve the problem of the power-grabbing trustees, but it certainly helps explain the behavior.

Kidding Ourselves is a very quick read, full of engaging stories and interesting ways of looking at ourselves and other people. Each chapter gives readers food for thought, ways of explaining why people act the way they do, which I always find interesting. Anyone expecting a heavy discussion of brain science and/or psychology will be disappointed.

I found the “Notes” section less than satisfying … I prefer back notes to notes in paragraph form. Bibliography and index are also included.

Review based on Early Reviewer, publisher-provided copy of the book. show less

Many years ago. I began to clean the house. I took out the vacuum cleaner and left it on the living room rug. I put some furniture polish on a cloth and took a swipe across the dining room table. I didn’t get any further than that. Later that day, when my husband and children got home, they each told me how nice the house looked, something they had never said before after I had spent hours thoroughly cleaning the house.
In KIDDING OURSELVES, Joseph T. Hallinan raises this phenomenon when show more he states that people see what they expect to see. A pedestrian or bicyclist is more likely to be hit by a car in an area where there are few other walkers or riders because the drivers are not looking for them. “Our perceptions conform to our expectations.”
A person who is told he is smart, will do better on a test than someone who is told he is below average. People in authority–teachers, baseball umpires, bosses–will give more credit to someone they think is superior regardless of the actual results.
We look for rationalizations to explain what we have done or seen. Self-deception allows us to adjust to life’s realities by altering our perceptions of them. What counts is not what is real but what we believe is real. Hallinan explains both positive and negative reasons and effects for this phenomenon.
Robert Frost said, “Why abandon a belief merely because it ceases to be true?” In fact, the opposite may be true. People become more entrenched to a belief because they think admitting they were wrong damages their self-esteem. Even with more than ninety percent of scientists saying that global warming is real and dangerous, a sizable number of people don’t believe it and won’t change their habits to try to reduce the damage. More Americans today(61%) believe that the assassination of President Kennedy was the result of a conspiracy than did in 1963 (52%). In fact, more believe that than believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution (39%).
Elected officials don’t believe that fiscal stimulus helps the economy add jobs, according to Christina Romer, because they are “arguing from ideology rather than evidence.” Providing proof often causes people to become more firm in their opinions because they believe their self-esteem is being threatened.
Many bosses have tunnel vision. The only opinion that counts is their own. Underlings tend to try to agree with the boss. This was one of the reasons for the Cuban Missile crisis during John Kennedy’s administration: None of his advisors dared to disagree with him. Afterwards, his brother Bobby served aa his Devil’s Advocate to be sure that other perspectives were considered.
In well-written, easy to understand format, KIDDING OURSELVES helps us recognize the tricks we play on ourselves and how they can be helpful or harmful. The only parts that I questioned were Hallinan’s statements about the high frequency of people marrying people who have the same last name (I know of only two such cases and in one of them the names were spelled differently) and that after a series of ballot initiatives, “California voters tended to mimic the positions of their political party (and were blind to the fact that they were doing just that.” Many voters support candidates with whom they agree before voting for them, not visa versa.
I received an advance copy of this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers. show less

Ever wonder why it’s impossible to convince your wingnut uncle or your socialist sister-in-law or the idiots from high school that you’ve friended on Facebook, that they’re wrong? You know they’re misinformed partisans and, if they would just listen to the sweet music of reason, pouring from your lips, they would all be so much happier. But they don’t. In fact, as Joseph T. Hallinan demonstrates in his informative, amusing and, to those of us who know we’re right, frustrating show more book, Kidding Ourselves: The Hidden Power of Self Deception, the more evidence we have, the more logical our argument, the harder those who disagree will dig in and hold to their beliefs.

And it’s not just others who delude themselves. We all do, at some time or another. In fact, according to Hallinan, that self-delusion can be an advantage, even when it leads us to overestimate our abilities or under estimate our effect on others. Hallinan offers anecdotes then supports his ideas with evidence from studies from researchers around the globe, some, years in the making.

Kidding Ourselves is an interesting look at why we do what we do (and others don’t). Can this book help you use your delusions to improve your life? I think so. But, then, I may just be deluding myself…. show less

Years ago, I came up with a concept I called The Uncertainty Certainty. Uncertainty gives people pause, and the resolution of the uncertainty permits them to make precisely the wrong decision, time after time. It's uncanny. Kidding Ourselves is a compendium of similar human folly. In order to maintain some sort of control, some sort of dignity, some sort of pride, we constantly hold positions in clear contradiction to reality. Even when we read the studies or the stories, when we know the show more stats and the odds, we continue to
hold opinions that are just plain wrong, and mostly about ourselves. Hallinan calls it a built-in placebo effect.

The book is a collection of stories and studies. We have examined the phenomenon up and down, forwards and backwards, in seemingly hundreds of ways. Incredible amounts of money have been expended to tell us this: we deceive ourselves constantly. It's innate and unstoppable. Rats and dogs show the same tendencies. Have a nice day fooling yourself.

We spend billions every year on vitamins and supplements, despite the almost weekly reporting of studies that show some vitamin totally failed to have any effect whatsoever in a two year study of 5000 people. Or that there has never been a study that showed any vitamin actually achieved preventing colds or cancer, extending lives, improving memory or easing joint movement.

It's even worse in politics. In Ohio before the last election, 15% of Republicans claimed to believe Mitt Romney had Osama Bin Laden killed. Nationwide, over half of Americans believe JFK was killed in a conspiracy. Hallinan says in politics, the most informed are the most biased, spouting wrong statistics and incorrect facts that favor their own stance. So while you might think they lie like rugs, the Michele Bachmanns of the world actually believe what they say. Facts be damned.

Whole towns have been laid low by non existent diseases. Eastern Ukraine believes the country's upheaval is solely a fabrication of western journalists. Mesmer changed thousands of lives with magnets (until Benjamin Franklin proved him silly). It is endless.

Fortunately, the book is not. At only 155 pages of content, it's a compact, entertaining and enlightening sampling of the disaster. Or maybe it's not a disaster. Maybe self deception is what keeps the wheels turning. One question it does not deal with: is knowing empowering? That will have to be another book. show less