You Are Not So Smart

You think you are smart. Welcome to the world of self-delusion. “You Are Not So Smart” by David McRaney is a compendium of 48 ways we succumb to self-delusion, every day.

  • The Misconception: You are a rational, logical being who sees the world as it really is.

  • The Truth: You have no clue why you act the way you do, choose the things you choose or think the thoughts you think. You are as deluded as the rest of us, but that's OK, it keeps you sane.


#1 PRIMING

  • The Misconception: You know when you are being influenced, and how it is affecting your behavior.

  • The Truth: You are unaware of the constant nudging you receive from ideas formed in your unconscious mind. When a stimulus in the past affects the way you behave and think or the way you perceive another stimulus, later on, this is priming.

    • Casinos are temples to priming.

    • You can use priming to your benefit: by a smile and thank you, you can affect how others feel; by designing a ritual that reinforces your good habits, you can create an environment conducive to what you want to achieve.

#2 CONFABULATION

  • The Misconception: You know when you are lying to yourself.

  • The Truth: You are often ignorant of your motivations and create fictional narratives to explain your decisions, emotions, and history without realizing it.

#3 CONFIRMATION BIAS

  • The Misconception: Your opinions are the result of years of rational, objective analysis

  • The Truth: Your opinions are the result of years of paying attention to information that confirmed what you believed while ignoring information that challenged your preconceived notions.

    • Confirmation bias is seeing the world through a filter.

    • You want to be right about how you see the world, so you seek out the information that confirms your beliefs and avoid contradictory evidence and opinions.

    • In science, you move closer to the truth by seeking evidence to the contrary. Perhaps the same method should inform your opinions as well.

#4 HINDSIGHT BIAS

  • The Misconception: After you learn something new, you remember how you were once ignorant or wrong.

  • The Truth: You often look back on the things you've just learned and assume you know them or believed them all along.

#5 THE TEXAS SHARPSHOOTER FALLACY

  • The Misconception: You take randomness into account when determining cause and effect.

  • The Truth: You tend to ignore random chance when the results seem meaningful or when you want a random event to have a meaningful cause.

#6 PROCRASTINATION

  • The Misconception: You procrastinate because you are lazy and can't manage your time well.

  • The Truth: Procrastination is fueled by weakness in the face of impulse and a failure to think about thinking.

    • In the struggle between SHOULD and WANT, some people have figured out something crucial: WANT never goes aways. Procrastination is all about choosing WANT over SHOULD because you don't have a plan for those times when you can expect to be tempted.

#7 NORMALCY BIAS

  • The Misconception: Your fight-or-flight instincts kick in and you panic when disaster strikes

  • The Truth: You often become abnormally calm and pretend everything is normal in a crisis. Normalcy bias is refusing to believe terrible events will include you even if you have every reason to think otherwise.

    • With so much crying wolf, it can be difficult to determine in the frenzied information landscape when to be alarmed, when it's really not a drill. We tend to act only when the problem crosses a threshold past which it becomes impossible to ignore. Of course, this is often after it is too late to act.

#8 INTROSPECTION

  • The Misconception: You know why you like the things you like and feel the way you feel.

  • The Truth: The origin of certain emotional states is unavailable to you, and when pressed to explain them, you will just make something up.

#9 THE AVAILABILITY HEURISTIC

  • The Misconception: With the advent of mass media, you understand how the world works based on statistics and facts culled from many examples.

  • The Truth: You are far more likely to believe something is commonplace if you can find just one example of it, and you are far less likely to believe in something you've never seen or heard before.

#10 THE BYSTANDER EFFECT

  • The Misconception: When someone is hurt, people rush to their aid.

  • The Truth: The more people who witness a person in distress, the less likely it is that any one person will help.

#11 THE DUNNING-KRUGER EFFECT

  • The Misconception: You can predict how well you would perform in any situation

  • The Truth: You are generally pretty bad at estimating your competence and the difficulty of complex tasks.

#12 APOPHENIA

  • The Misconception: Some coincidences are so miraculous, they must have meaning.

  • The Truth: Coincidences are a routine part of life, even the seemingly miraculous ones. Any meaning applied to them comes from your mind.

#13 BRAND LOYALTY

  • The Misconception: You prefer the things you own over the things you don't because you made rational choices when you bought them.

  • The Truth: You prefer the things you own because you rationalize your past choices to protect your sense of self.

#14 THE ARGUMENT FROM AUTHORITY

  • The Misconception: You are more concerned with the validity of information than the person delivering it.

  • The Truth: The status and credentials of an individual greatly influence your perception of that individual's message.

#15 THE ARGUMENT FROM IGNORANCE

  • The Misconception: When you can't explain something, you focus on what you can prove.

  • The Truth: When you are unsure of something, you are more likely to accept strange explanations.

#16 THE STRAW MAN FALLACY

  • The Misconception: When you argue, you try to stick to the facts.

  • The Truth: In any argument, anger will tempt you to reframe your opponent's position.

    • you take the facts and assertions of your opponent and replace them with an artificial argument you feel more comfortable dealing with. You first build a straw man, then you attack it, then you point out how easy it was to defeat it, and then you come to a conclusion.

#17 THE AD HOMINEM FALLACY

  • The Misconception: If you can't trust someone, you should ignore that person's claims.

  • The Truth: What someone says and why they say it should be judged separately.

    • Calling someone an idiot does not prove you right, or that person wrong.

#18 THE JUST-WORLD FALLACY

  • The Misconception: People who are losing at the game of life must have done something to deserve it.

  • The Truth: The beneficiaries of good fortune often do nothing to earn it, and bad people often get away with their actions without consequences.

    • when you hear about a situation you hope never happens to you, you tend to blame the victim, not because you are a terrible person, but because you want to believe you are smart enough to avoid the same fate.

#19 THE PUBLIC GOODS GAME

  • The Misconception: We could create a system with no regulations where everyone would contribute to the good of society, everyone would benefit, and everyone would be happy.

  • The Truth: Without some form of regulation, slackers and cheaters will crash economic systems because people don't want to feel like suckers.

    • The tragedy of the commons.

#20 THE ULTIMATUM GAME

  • The Misconception: You choose to accept or refuse an offer based on logic.

  • The Truth: When it comes to making a deal, you base your decision on your status.

    • When fairness is at stake, emotions take over.

#21 SUBJECTIVE VALIDATION

  • The Misconception: You are skeptical of generalities.

  • The Truth: You are prone to believing vague statements and predictions are true, especially if they are positive and address you personally.

    • the Forer effect; psychics; Ray Hyman's "cold reading". Your ability to fool yourself is greater than the ability of any conjurer.

#22 CULT INDOCTRINATION

  • The Misconception: You are too smart to join a cult.

  • The Truth: Cults are populated by people just like you.

    • You have an innate desire to belong to a group and hang out with interesting people.

    • The line between cults and groups is blurry.

    • People don't usually follow the leader; they follow the ideals the leader proclaims to be serving.

    • If you have ever called yourself a fan of anyone, you are experiencing the first stage of cult indoctrination.

#23 GROUPTHINK

  • The Misconception: Problems are easier to solve when a group of people get together to discuss solutions.

  • The Truth: The desire to reach consensus and avoid confrontation hinders progress.

    • True groupthink depends on three conditions: a group of people who like one another, isolation, and a deadline for a crucial decision.

#24 SUPERNORMAL RELEASES

  • The Misconception: Men who have sex with Real-Dolls are insane, and women who marry eighty-year-old billionaires are gold diggers

  • The Truth: The Real Doll and rich old sugar daddies are both supernormal releasers.

    • David Buss "Evolution of desire"; a stimulus for male attraction: female hip to waist ratio of 0.7 that correlates to health, etc. For female attraction: economic capacity, ambition, stability, intelligence, commitment, height.

#25 THE AFFECT HEURISTICS

  • The Misconception: You calculate what is risky or rewarding and always choose to maximize gains while minimizing losses.

  • The Truth: You depend on emotions to tell you if something is good or bad, greatly overestimate rewards, and tend to stick to your first impressions.

#26 DUNBAR'S NUMBER

  • The Misconception: There is a Rolodex in your mid with the names and faces of everyone you've ever known

  • The Truth: You can maintain relationships and keep up with only 150 people at once.

    • Dunbar: the size of the average group is directly correlated with how efficiently the members can socially groom one another.

#27 SELLING OUT

  • The Misconception: Both consumerism and capitalism are sustained by corporations and advertising.

  • The Truth: Both consumerism and capitalism are driven by competition among consumers for status.

    • Even the cries against consumption are consumed (Michael Moore, Noam Chomsky, Kurt Cobain...)

    • The Rebel Sell book

    • Competition among consumers is the turbine of capitalism.

    • When you can't out-consume someone, you can still out-taste one another.

    • Running counter to culture creates a new wave of culture people will in turn attempt to counter.

    • Poor people compete with resources. The middle class competes with selection. Wealthy compete with possessions.

#28 SELF-SERVING BIAS

  • The Misconception: You evaluate yourself based on past successes and defeats

  • The Truth: You excuse your failures and see yourself as more successful, more intelligent, and more skilled than you are.

    • Self-esteem is mostly self-delusion, but it serves a purpose. You are biologically driven to think highly of yourself in order to avoid stagnation.

    • You don't believe you are an average person, but you do believe everyone else is - illusory superiority effect.

    • You are a liar by default, and you lie most to yourself. If you fail, you forget it. If you win, you tell everyone. When it comes to being honest with yourself and those you love, you are not so smart.

#29 THE SPOTLIGHT EFFECT

  • The Misconception: When you are around others, you feel as if everyone is noticing every aspect of your appearance and behavior.

  • The Truth: People devote little attention to you unless prompted to.

    • The next time you get a pimple on your forehead or buy a new pair of shoes, or tweet about how boring your day is, don't expect anyone to notice. You are not so smart or special.

#30 THE THIRD-PERSON EFFECT

  • The Misconception: You believe your opinions and decisions are based on experience and facts. while those who disagree with you are falling for the lies and propaganda of sources you don't trust.

  • The Truth: Everyone believes the people they disagree with are gullible, and everyone thinks they are far less susceptible to persuasion than they truly are.

#31 CATHARSIS

  • The Misconception: Venting your anger is an effective way to reduce stress and prevent lashing out at friends and family.

  • The Truth: Venting increases aggressive behavior over time.

    • Venting feels great but it accomplishes little else. Actually, it makes matters worse and primes your future behavior by fogging your mind.

    • Belief in catharsis makes you more likely to seek it out.

#32 THE MISINFORMATION EFFECT

  • The Misconception: Memories are played back like recordings

  • The Truth: Memories are constructed anew each time from whatever information is currently available, which makes them highly permeable to influences from the present.

    • However, as memories change, your confidence in them grows stronger.

#33 CONFORMITY

  • The Misconception: You are a strong individual who doesn't conform unless forced to.

  • The Truth: It takes little more than an authority figure or social pressure to get you to obey because conformity is a survival instinct.

    • Never be afraid to question authority when your actions could harm yourself or others.

#34 EXTINCTION BURST

  • The Misconception: If you stop engaging in a bad habit, the habit will gradually diminish until it disappears from your life.

  • The Truth: Any time you quit something cold turkey, your brain will make a last-ditch effort to return you to your habit.

    • Habits form because you are not so smart, and they sense under the same conditions.

#35 SOCIAL LOAFING

  • The Misconception: When you are joined by others in a task, you work harder and become more accomplished.

  • The Truth: Once part of a group, you tend to put in less effort because you know your work will be pooled together with others.

#36 THE ILLUSION OF TRANSPARENCY

  • The Misconception: When your emotions run high, people can look at you and tell what you are thinking and feeling.

  • The Truth: Your subjective experience is not observable, and you overestimate how much you telegraph your inner thoughts and emotions.

#37 LEARNED HELPLESSNESS

  • The Misconception: If you are in a bad situation, you will do whatever you can do to escape it.

  • The Truth: If you feel you aren't in control of your destiny, you will give up and accept whatever situation you are in.

    • Choices, even small ones, can hold back the crushing weight of helplessness. You must fight back your behavior and learn to fail with pride. Failing often is the only way to get the things you want out of life. Besides death, your destiny is not inescapable.

    • You are not so smart, but you are smarter than dogs and rats. Don't give in yet.

#38 EMBODIED COGNITION

  • The Misconception: Your opinions of people and events are based on objective evaluation

  • The Truth: You translate your physical world into words, and then believe those words.

#39 THE ANCHORING EFFECT

  • The Misconception: You rationally analyze all factors before making a choice or determining the value.

  • The Truth: Your first perception lingers in your mind, affecting later perceptions and decisions.

#40 ATTENTION

  • The Misconception: You see everything going on before your eyes, taking in all the information like a camera.

  • The Truth: You are aware only of a small amount of the total information your eyes take in and even less is processed by your conscious mind and remembered.

    • The invisible gorilla - missing out on the information in plain sight.

    • Simons and Chabris experiment - perceptual blindness

#41 SELF HANDICAPPING

  • The Misconception: In all you do, you strive for success.

  • The Truth: You often create conditions for failure ahead of time to protect your ego.

    • Men tend to be much more likely to self-handicap than women

#42 SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECIES

  • The Misconception: Predictions about your future are subject to forces beyond your control.

  • The Truth: Just believing a future event will happen can cause it to happen if the event depends on human behavior.

    • Example: a rumor of shortage; stock market

    • Labeling: when someone believes you are a certain kind of person, you tend to live up to those expectations

#43 THE MOMENT

  • The Misconception: You are one person, and your happiness is based on being content with your life.

  • The Truth: You are multiple selves, and happiness is based on satisfying all of them.

    • Kahneman: the self that makes decisions in your life is usually the remembering one. It is happy when you can sit back and reflect on your life up to this point and feel content.

#44 CONSISTENCY BIAS

  • The Misconception: You know how your opinions have changed over time.

  • The Truth: Unless you consciously keep tabs on your progress, you assume the way you feel now is the way you've always felt.

#45 THE REPRESENTATIVENESS HEURISTIC

  • The Misconception: Knowing a person's history makes it easier to determine what sort of person they are.

  • The Truth: You jump to conclusions based on how representative a person seems to be of a preconceived character type.

    • The conjunction fallacy: based on a description, what is more likely: that (A) L is a bank teller and feminist activist or (B) L is a bank teller. People pick A even if from purely statistical considerations, B is more likely.

    • Representativeness heuristics are useful (they help you avoid danger), but also dangerous (they lead to generalizations and prejudice)

    • When you expect people to be a certain way because they seem to represent your notions of the sort of people in that category, you are not so smart.

#46 EXPECTATION

  • The Misconception: Wine is a complicated elixir, full of subtle flavors only an expert can truly distinguish, and experienced tasters are impervious to deception

  • The Truth: Wine experts and consumers can be fooled by altering their expectations.

#47 THE ILLUSION OF CONTROL

  • The Misconception: You know how much control you have over your surroundings.

  • The Truth: You often believe you have control over outcomes that are either random or too complex to predict.

    • the gambler's fallacy

    • Knowing about the illusion of control shouldn't discourage your from attempting to carve a space for yourself out of whatever field you want to tackle. But as you do, remember most of the future is unforeseeable. Learn to coexist with chaos. Accept that failure is always a possibility, even if you are one of the good guys.

#48 THE FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTION ERROR

  • The Misconception: Other people's behavior is the reflection of their personality.

  • The Truth: Other people's behavior is more the result of the situation than their disposition.

    • the prison experiment

    • When you look for a cause for another person's actions, you find it. Rarely though, do you first consider how powerful the situation is. You blame the person, not the environment and the influence of the person's peers.

Arina Divo