Strangers to Ourselves
""Know thyself," a precept as old as Socrates, is still good advice. But is introspection the best path to self-knowledge? What are we trying to discover, anyway? In an eye-opening tour of the unconscious, as contemporary psychological science has redefined it, Timothy D. Wilson introduces us to a hidden mental world of judgments, feelings, and motives that introspection may never show us."--Jacket.
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- What is a good app / place online to find people to read a book with? Think Tinder for book readers.
Now that I got your attention, here is my list of books that I would like to read with somebody. My goal would be to read 10 pages / day (I got kids…) and then meet once a week to have a conversation what we have learned, what notes we took, etc. Let me know if you would be interested!
1. Man’s search for meaning (Viktor Frankl) 2. The power of strangers (Joe Keohane) 3. How emotions are made (Lisa Feldman Barret) 4. Atomic habits (James Clear) 5. Strangers to ourselves (Timothy D. Wilson)
- Thank you for sharing! This paper is absolutely amazing -- AND it came out in 1977!
Telling More Than We Can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes by Richard E. Nisbett and Timothy D. Wilson
Both researchers have had amazing careers since then. Timothy Wilson's book Strangers to Ourselves is one I recommend to everyone. It is a continuation of the work in the paper you link to. Nisbett's books are excellent too; my favorite (a must-read!) is Culture of Honor: The Psychology of Violence in the South. Any student of psychology should know these works.
- A great book to realize that the reasons people give for what they do are not the real reasons is Elephant in the Brain
https://www.amazon.com/Elephant-Brain-Hidden-Motives-Everyda...
A great book to realize that the reasons you give for what you do are not the real reasons is Strangers to Ourselves
https://www.amazon.com/Strangers-Ourselves-Discovering-Adapt...
- The principal author of this paper, Timothy D. Wilson has done some awesome research. I can highly recommend his book Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious. I found it it be very illuminating and even useful for understanding others and myself better.
https://www.amazon.com/Strangers-to-Ourselves-audiobook/dp/B...
- Gotta plug one of my favorite books: "Strangers to Ourselves" by Timothy D. Wilson
https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674013827
TL;DR: we think we know why we do stuff we do, but we do not.
- I found the same documentary instructive. I think there's an insight there into human tribal instincts, demonstrating that our epistemologies can't help be be socially mediated. It was flabbergasting how deeply intelligent some of the true believers were, and it's a little too convenient to label and discard them as crazies or outliers. They might be a little more representative of the human animal than any of us want to admit.
What's most unsettling is, there's no reason to expect that the same psychosocial tribal mechanisms are not constantly active, even when the facts are on the side of one's tribal beliefs. This leads to any number of blind spots, not only in truth-seeking and self-correction, but in social dynamics (in-group vs. out-group). Our brains are exceptionally, insidiously good at working backwards, not just to convince others, but to convince ourselves. Those who can spin on a dime and update/discard ideas in the presence of new evidence are a truly rare breed.
Two of my favorite books on motivated reasoning and self-deception:
Strangers to Ourselves, by Timothy D. Wilson: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674013827
The Elephant in the Brain, by Robin Hanson & Kevin Simler: http://elephantinthebrain.com/
