The Self Illusion

by Bruce Hood

  Most people, that is, except for those taking part in psychologist Matt Field’s experiments at Liverpool University. Field was showing them the infamous Audition torture scene for a study on self-control. Half of the student volunteers were told not to turn away and that they must not show any emotion. They had to resist the nausea and overwhelming feelings of disgust. They had to watch the violence through gritted teeth. They had to control themselves. The other half of the group simply watched the torture scene but were allowed to respond naturally. They were nauseated. They were disgusted. Many closed their eyes. One student fainted. Their mirroring system had gone into empathetic meltdown.

  What kind of sadist is Matt Field? How did this study ever get through the university ethics committee? Actually, he is a very likeable chap who is trying to understand some of modern society’s worst scourges – alcoholism and drug addiction. It turns out that after being forced to sit through an extreme Japanese horror movie, those participants who were instructed to control their emotions needed a stiff drink.38 After filling out some bogus questionnaires, both groups were allowed to have as many beers as they liked as part of the reward for taking part in the study. The group that was forced to suppress their emotions drank half as much again as the group that was allowed to wear their hearts on their sleeves. The effect was massive. And it doesn’t have to be extreme horror. Tearjerkers, like Terms of Endearment, also compel us to respond emotionally, but if we try to suppress our feelings this makes us vulnerable to temptations.

  Field, along with a growing body of addiction experts, believe that self-control or willpower is a key component to understanding why some of us succumb to substance abuse after enduring stress. Whenever we exert self-control, it comes at a cost – a cost that makes us more susceptible to temptation later. This may be one of the reasons why so many of us give into behaviours that are potentially self-defeating. Most of us drink too much, eat too much or engage in activities that we would prefer to avoid or at best limit.39 And yet, most of us fail, despite our best intentions to control our behaviour.

  Roy Baumeister is a psychologist who believes in the concept of willpower and the reality of the self.40 He does not think it is an illusion. Moreover, he thinks the self has three different components: the self as subjective awareness (‘I’), the self as defined by relationships with others (‘me’) and the self with the mental muscle power to make decisions and avoid temptation (executive functions). Whenever we succumb to the temptations we would rather avoid, Baumeister calls this ‘ego-depletion’ as if the self has some kind of mental muscle that can become fatigued.41 With self-control, there is only so much effort you can allocate, and when this becomes depleted you become vulnerable to behaviours and thoughts that want to take over.

  Ego-depletion can be induced in a number of different ways. It doesn’t have to be by sitting through movies of extreme emotional or violent content. All sorts of experiences can deplete our ego strength, from enduring bad smells, tackling difficult puzzles, putting up with others in crowded situations or even being electrocuted with an unpredictable mild shock.42 The need to control and the possibility that our willpower is limited, mean that we find it difficult to resist our urges afterward. We eat more junk food, drink more alcohol, spend more time looking at scantily clad members of the opposite sex43 (especially if we are in a stable relationship and usually have to resist this temptation) and generally fail to control our self as much as we think we can or would like to.

  Even when we do things that we think make us look more acceptable to others in the group, such as presenting oneself as competent and likeable to a hostile audience, we are still draining our egos of willpower.44 That’s why we always feel like a stiff drink after a job interview. If we were just to act our selves, we are less stressed by these experiences. Even bosses feel it. Having to reprimand others or ostracize others when it is not in your nature to do so is ego-depleting.45 In an attempt to fit in with others’ expectations by changing how we present our self, we are creating unnecessary distortions of control that will come back to haunt us in moments of temptation. Adopting public personas that are at odds with our true emotional profiles may come at a cost. Individuals engage in behaviours that are the antithesis to their reputation, precisely because they are a rebound against the extreme positions that they are expected to maintain in public. Is this why politicians and judges seem to be routinely arrested for cruising for prostitutes?

  Much of this sounds so obvious that one has to question whether you need to argue for some form of special mental muscle. Is it just another metaphor? Actually, Baumeister thinks not. He has shown that the brain needs to work out, to exert willpower, and this requires energy. Glucose is one of the brain’s vital fuels, and Baumeister and his colleagues have shown that glucose levels are lowered during ego-depleting tasks.46 In one experiment, adults had to have a discussion with a Hispanic interviewer about equal opportunities in which they had to avoid displaying any prejudice. Those who scored highly on questionnaire-based measures of racism had lower blood sugar than those who had no problem with interracial interactions. The good news is that you can reduce your ego-depletion. After drinking one of those sugary energy drinks, the glucose is absorbed into the bloodstream at a rate of thirty calories per minute and, after about ten minutes, can be metabolized to feed the brain. Compared to those who had been given an artificially sweetened drink, those who had a sugary drink were much more able to deal with stress. In one of their experiments, adults were asked read words about death. This is usually ego-depleting as it has a negative effect on adults’ subsequent ability to solve a later word puzzle task. However, not for those hyped up on a sugary drink. Reading about death did not affect their performance at all. Maybe that’s why we should order the extra large sugary Coke at the cinema if we are going to see horror movies like Audition.

  All of this means that much of our efforts of self-control may be misguided. Most of us want to diet but what do we do? We resist the temptation of that first chocolate only to find that the craving is even greater. Reducing our caloric intake with the initial chocolate reduces our blood sugar and makes us more susceptible to ego-depletion later. It’s a vicious circle. Even if you manage to skip a meal, you may find your self gorging on alcohol or cigarettes or some other vice. Even moderation must be done in moderation.

  Bladder Control

  In an extension of his muscle metaphor, Baumeister believes you can exercise your willpower to improve your self-control. For example, he found that by getting students to monitor and control their posture over two weeks, they were much better on experiments that measured self-control compared to those allowed to lounge around. Or you might consider the power stance. Simply puffing out your shoulders and clenching your fists gives you more willpower 47 and increases testosterone levels in both men and women.48 Like the effects of forcing a smile, merely simulating body postures and actions can elicit the corresponding biological changes and mental states that usually trigger them in the first place.49

  Another important key to success appears to depend on changing routines. Much of the problem of temptation stems from the habitual behaviours that we develop. It is much easier to give in to a set of behaviours than to create a new set. We are literally creatures of habit and so we easily fall into cycles of behaviour that seem difficult to break. If you really want to change your behaviour, then don’t try to make your self stop. This strategy will only rebound and make you more vulnerable. Instead, find an alternative to replace the activity. Not only does this provide a different scenario to occupy your activity, but it avoids the curse of ego-depletion.

  Otherwise, you could simply practice holding your bladder and not going to the toilet. Mirjam Tuk found that after she drank several cups of coffee to stay awake during a long lecture, toward the end she was bursting to go but had to wait. She wondered if all the mental effort she recruited to avoid an embarrassing accident could be used to suppress other urges. In one of her studies,50 pa
rticipants drank five cups of water (about 750 millilitres) and then, after about forty minutes, the time it takes the water to reach the bladder, gave them an adult delay-of-gratification task. They could choose a cash reward of $16, which would be given to them on the following day, or $30 in thirty-five days. In comparison to those who had not drunk the water, more of the participants who were bursting to go held out for the larger reward. Tuk even suggests that any type of financial decision-making might benefit from increased bladder control. While these findings seem to go against the ego-depletion account, Tuk thinks the difference might be explained by the fact that bladder control is largely under automatic unconscious processes, whereas ego-depletion is more cognitive. It remains to be seen how this story plays out in children, but I think it is very unlikely that we will be attempting such studies with children in our laboratory – I mean can you imagine the mess to clean up?

  A Kid in the Candy Store

  Remarkable though the ego-depletion research is, one does not need to evoke a core self at the helm of our decision processes and behaviours. Each of the experiments and findings can equally be described not so much as the ego under pressure but rather the shift in balance between all the external things that compete for activity. It certainly helps to evoke the self illusion in these situations because it provides us with a protagonist who fails to live up to expectations and ideals. Like a kid in a candy store, we see temptation all around us but maintain that the self is the one being tempted into making the decisions and choices. What if it is the other way around? What if there is a kid who likes different types of candy but each different candy competes for his attention? Each candy that pulls the kid closer is offset by yet another more delicious one that looms into view. Now the decisions and choices are not within the kid but reflect the relative strengths of everything out there that jostle for attention. Certainly, there is a kid being tempted in this candy store metaphor, but we are mistaken in locating decisions within the child. The same goes for free will.

  Ego-depletion sounds like it involves some form of self, does it not? So does the self-control when avoiding eating the marshmallow. Who is making decisions and avoiding temptation if not the self? In his book, The Ego Trick, philosopher Julian Baggini points out that it is impossible to talk about the mental processes and behaviours of a person without invoking the ego approach.51 We find it difficult to imagine how decisions and behaviours could equally arise without a self. For example, we often hear that addicts cannot control themselves, but is that really true? Are they totally at the mercy of the drugs and behaviours that ruin their lives? No one is denying that addiction is a really difficult problem to overcome but even the addict can avoid drugs if some immediate consequence looms larger. Few addicts would take that next drink or inject that drug if a gun was placed to their forehead. Clearly, in these situations the imminent threat of death trumps so-called uncontrollable urges. They are only uncontrollable in some contexts in which the competing influences do not match up to the allure of intoxication. The problem for addicts then is that the negative consequences of their behaviours do not match up to the immediate gratification that their addictions provide.52 They would prefer to not be addicted but that requires prolonged abstention, which is more difficult. When we talk about choices made by individuals, there are multiple influences and drives that compete for those decisions. Many of these arise from external circumstances.

  Even if the self and our ability to exercise free will is an illusion, not all is lost. In fact, beliefs seem to produce consequences in our behaviour. The ego-depletion we have just described appears to only work in those individuals who believe that willpower is a limited resource.53 In other words, if we think that our self-control is limited, then we show ego-depletion. If we don’t believe in limited self-control, we don’t show ego-depletion.

  Beliefs about self-control, from wherever they may derive, are powerful motivators of human behaviour. For example, consider ten-year-old children who were told that their performance on a test was either due to their natural intelligence or their ability to work hard.54 Both sets were then given a really difficult second task that was well beyond their capability, which no one could complete. However, in a third test, the children who thought their initial successes on the first task were due to their intelligence also gave up more easily because they attributed their failure on the second task to their limited natural ability, which made them less likely to persevere on the last task. In contrast, children who thought their performance was all down to hard work not only stuck longer on the third task, but also enjoyed it more. So it’s better to tell your kids that they are hard workers rather than simply smart.

  The same can be said for free will. When we believe that we are the masters of our own destiny, we behave differently than those who deny the existence of free will and believe everything is determined. This has been studied experimentally using priming. Priming is a way of changing our mindset by manipulating the sorts of information we are made to focus on. (Again, this is a strong indicator that our self is influenced by what we are exposed to!) Half the adults were primed to think in a determinist way by reading stories that refuted the existence of free will such as, ‘Ultimately, we are biological computers – designed by evolution, built through genetics, and programmed by the environment.’ The remaining adults read free-will-endorsing statements such as, ‘I am able to override the genetic and environmental factors that sometimes influence my behaviour.’ Adults who were primed to reject free will were much more likely to cheat on an arithmetic exam and overpaid themselves with greater rewards than adults who read the free will endorsements.55

  To most of us, the absence of free will is tantamount to a determinism that sounds pretty much like fatalism – no matter what you do, you can’t change things. That’s a pretty demoralizing outlook on life that is bound to undermine any motivation to do anything. Maybe that’s why belief in free will predicts not only better job performance but also expected career success.56 Workers who believe in free will outperform their colleagues, and this is recognized and rewarded by their supervisors. So when we believe in free will, we enjoy life more.

  The moral of the tale is that, even if free will doesn’t exist, then maybe it is best to ignore what the neuroscientists or philosophers say. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. The very act of believing means that you change the way you behave in ways that will benefit you. And the main reason this is true is that not only is it important for our self-motivation, but also for how others view us. We like people who are decisive because we believe they are positive and driven, and that makes most of us feel more comfortable than someone who can’t seem to reach a decision.

  Finally, just because something doesn’t really exist doesn’t mean that believing that it does is pointless. Fantasy doesn’t really exist but the world would be a much more impoverished place without storytelling. Also, you cannot readily abandon the belief. As the one who has done the most to identify the Great Selfini, Wegner wrote, ‘If the illusion could be dispelled by explanation, I should be some kind of robot by now.’ You cannot escape the self illusion.

  5

  Why Our Choices Are Not Our Own

  The point at which we feel that we are making a decision is often well after the fact, and yet it seems as if we were responsible in advance of making our choice. How we make decisions can also rely more on those around us than we realize, and we might not necessarily be the ones in charge. We may feel like we are making our own personal choices, but in many instances these are actually controlled by external influences of which we may not even be aware.

  This is something advertisers have long known. Since the very first advertisements appeared in ancient Babylonia, vendors have realized that it pays to let people know the name of what you are selling.1 Our choices can be greatly influenced by what we are told, even though we may not be fully aware of this. In the twentieth century, it was thought that subtle marketing was the way forward to manipulate p
eoples’ choices. For example, in the 1950s cinema owners thought they could make the audience buy more drinks and popcorn by splicing single frames of pictures of products – too brief to be detected consciously – into the movie. The idea was that such subliminal images would register in the unconscious, leading the audience to think that they wanted to visit the foyer to purchase a soft drink; the advertisements could activate our minds below conscious awareness, making them even more potent. However, the scientific evidence for subliminal marketing is at best equivocal.2 Subtle messages do indeed shape our thoughts and behaviours, but when it comes to selling a soda drink, big, in-your-face advertising is best. This is why advertising sponsorship is so lucrative. Companies are prepared to spend large amounts of money just to get their brand in front of you because they know that people prefer a name they have heard, over one they have not. Given the choice between different brands, people reliably choose the one they recognize or that seems familiar.3

  Of course, not every decision comes down to a personal consumer choice, especially when we are asked about things of which we have no knowledge. Sometimes the decision can be so important that we seek out confirmation and support from others, especially those we perceive to be experts such as medical doctors. We may be offered a choice in treatments, but most of us prefer the doctor to tell us what to do because we think they know best. Yet in many instances of our day-to-day experience, we generally assume that, given a simple informed choice, we can apply some internal process of evaluation and then, like a judge, we make our pronouncement.