Kidding Ourselves

March 31, 2014
It can be difficult to believe how vastly different our own view of reality can be from others’, but that is exactly what Hallinan (Why We Make Mistakes) tries to get to the core of in his latest book. The Pulitzer Prize–winning author presents an abundance of evidence on how people’s perceptions can vary, and also how easily they can deceive themselves. Take, for example, the citizens of a small town outside of Chicago: one night a woman believed she had been briefly paralyzed by a man using an anesthetic gas. Once it made news headlines similar incidents were reported with increasing frequency each day. No suspect was ever found, however, and when police called the reports “a case of mass delusion,” the attacks completely stopped. People truly believed they had been attacked, but according to Hallinan “we are copycats.” While the studies he presents will entertain any reader, such as why some people really do die of a broken heart or why your boss really is just a jerk, few really astonish. Hallinan’s attempts to legitimize his anecdotes through research and experiment fall flat and often amount to obvious explanations. Nevertheless, it’s accessible pop science that provides a good laugh and some great dinner conversation.

May 1, 2014
A breezy, anecdotal survey of self-deception and how it is not merely inevitable, but helpful and even essential.Former Wall Street Journal writer Hallinan (Why We Make Mistakes, 2009) works in territory similar to Malcolm Gladwell's: giving fresh twists to familiar assumptions, showing that conventional wisdom can be more conventional than wise. Journalists call this a "conceptual scoop," when a writer isn't the first to report facts but the first to provide (or popularize) a different framing or interpretation that challenges what most people think they know. In this case, the author begins with the inarguable premise that what we believe, experience and anticipate is dependent upon how we perceive things and that we often perceive things less the way they are than how we want them to be. However, plenty of good can result from our penchant for deluding ourselves, feeling more optimistic than the situation warrants and believing we have more control than in fact we do. "Seeing things accurately, by which we mean seeing things 'as they are, ' is not always a plus," writes Hallinan. "Sometimes it's a hindrance, and this is especially true when things are really bleak. There is, for instance, a strong connection between depression and realism. Decades of research suggest that if you want a realistic assessment of things, ask someone who is depressed." Looking on the bright side not only makes us happier (if deluded), but also more productive, and it can even have predictive effects on outcome (the self-fulfilling prophecy). Hallinan's survey ranges all over the map, rarely stopping anywhere for more than a couple of paragraphs or pages, as he fits nearly everything under a big umbrella, from a variety of urban myths (and mass delusions) to the effectiveness of placebos to the refusal of some conservatives to admit that Barack Obama is not a foreign-born Muslim.A genial, occasionally glib guide to both the positive and negative effects of self-delusion.

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May 15, 2014

Pulitzer Prize winner Hallinan's follow-up to Why We Make Mistakes continues his exploration of the mind's shortcomings. The author outlines numerous psychological and sociological studies that analyze the positive benefits all of us find in everyday--as opposed to clinically psychotic--delusional thinking. Examples and discussions of the placebo effect, mass hysteria, herding, perception, expectation, superstition, social power imbalance, and risk optimism are all covered in this well-documented and approachable work (the evolutionary biology theory content is minimal). Particularly insightful is the reportage regarding the human impulses that create our need for pattern and predictability (our locus of control), and the overarching theme of how self-deception can have concrete, measurable health consequences, which are based on having an optimistic attitude toward life. Similar in scope and chatty tone to Cordelia Fine's A Mind of Its Own, Hallinan's text updates readers on more recent field studies. VERDICT This is a well-researched and accessibly written book on the flexibility of human perception and belief, recommended for undergraduates and casual behavioral sciences readers.--Kellie Benson, Oakton Community Coll. Libs., Des Plaines, IL

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