How Do We Know Ourselves?

This content has been archived. It may no longer be accurate or relevant.

From The Wall Street Journal:

The title of “How Do We Know Ourselves? Curiosities and Marvels of the Human Mind” suggests that Hope College psychologist David Myers will, in this brief book, focus primarily on the process of self-discovery. But a better title might have been “How Well Do We Know Ourselves?” The answer that emerges, over 40 charming and clear-eyed chapters that cover disparate areas of psychology including memory, relationships and personality, is: not very.

Consider a study on dissent. A huge majority of the participants—95%—predicted that they would immediately protest sexist comments in a hypothetical group scenario. In a second phase of the experiment, only 45% of the participants actually spoke up when they encountered the comments. In another study, participants were told to write blog posts as if they had a few months to live. The posts were significantly more negative than those of actual terminal patients. And those with the least self-knowledge are also the most sure of themselves. Lower scores on tests of humor, logic and grammar have been associated with greater overconfidence in those domains; in what’s now called the Dunning-Kruger effect (after its discoverers), Mr. Myers writes, “incompetence doesn’t recognize itself.”

We misjudge not only our individual selves but others of the species. People presume that small talk with strangers will be awkward, but research shows it psychologically benefits both parties. Passive Facebook use can erode our sense of well-being because we see positive posts as representative of peers’ seemingly superior lives. And when asked to enter and exit a room wearing a possibly embarrassing Barry Manilow T-shirt, students later estimated that nearly half their peers noticed Barry, whereas the actual number was far lower. (In all cases, it’s worth noting, reality was brighter than expectations.)

Mr. Myers, the book’s bio reports, is the author of a widely adopted psychology textbook. This volume draws on the breadth and depth of such knowledge but remains light on its feet. Mr. Myers has a deft touch, dropping mentions of studies here and there to get the main point across, and mixing them with everyday observations and quotes from philosophers. The chapters are lessons but also essays. The acknowledgments thank his “poet-colleague and writing coach,” and the influence shows, with lines like “we have dignity but not deity” (on overconfidence) and “disparity dispirits” (on inequality).

Some chapters provoke mirth. The first, on implicit egotism, describes the “name-residence effect.” In one study, a disproportionate number of people nicknamed Tex moved to Texas, and Virginias moved to Virginia. Also, people with the last name Baker, Barber, Butcher or Butler were more likely to enter those professions than mere chance would explain. Another chapter covers “mondegreens,” misheard phrases or words. They’re common in hazily grasped song lyrics: “There’s a bad moon on the rise” becomes “There’s a bathroom on the right.”

Other times, Mr. Myers directly addresses weighty issues, such as politics. He describes the rise in political polarization, a result both of evergreen factors like confirmation bias and modern phenomena like cable TV. (“Our challenge is to affirm both our diversity and our unifying ideals,” he writes.) He notes that many people who protest immigration are likely to be least affected by it; places with greater immigration show greater acceptance, perhaps because interaction reduces prejudice. But even when discussing narcissism among the powerful, his tone is never polemical.

Link to the rest at The Wall Street Journal