The Self Illusion

by Bruce Hood

  60. R. E. Nisbett, The Geography of Thought (London: Nicholas Brealey, 2003).

  61. H. C. Triandis, ‘The self and social behavior in differing cultural contexts’, Psychological Review, 96 (1989), 269–89.

  62. S. D. Cousins, ‘Culture and self-perception in Japan and the United States’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56 (1989), 124–31.

  63. S. Kitayama, S. Duffy, T. Kawamura and J. T. Larsen, ‘Perceiving an object and its context in different cultures: A cultural look at the New Look’, Psychological Science, 14 (2003), 201–6.

  64. S. Duffy, R. Toriyama, S. Itakura and S. Kitayama, ‘Development of cultural strategies of attention in North American and Japanese children’, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 102 (2008), 351–9.

  65. T. Masuda and R. E. Nisbett, ‘Attending holistically vs. analytically: Comparing the context sensitivity of Japanese and Americans’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81 (2001), 922–34.

  66. M. W. Morris and K. Peng, ‘Culture and cause: American and Chinese attributions for social physical events’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67 (1994), 949–71.

  67. H. F. Chua, J. E. Boland and R. E. Nisbett, ‘Cultural variation in eye movements during scene perception’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 102 (2005),12629–33.

  68. W. James, Principles of Psychology (New York, NY: Henry Holt, 1890).

  69. A. Fernald and H. Morikawa, ‘Common themes and cultural variations in Japanese and American mothers’ speech to infants’, Child Development, 64 (1993), 637–56.

  70. A. Gopnik and S. Choi, ‘Do linguistic differences lead to cognitive differences. A cross-linguistic study of semantic and cognitive development’, First Language, 10 (1990), 199–215.

  71. W. L. Gardener, S. Gabriel and A. Y. Lee, ‘“I” value freedom but “we” value relationships: Self-construal priming mirrors cultural differences in judgment’, Psychological Science, 10 (1999), 321–6.

  72. Y.-Y. Hong, C.-Y. Chiu and T. M. Kung, ‘Bringing culture out in front: Effects of cultural meaning system activation on social cognition’, in K. Leung, Y. Kashima, U. Kim and S. Yamaguchi (eds), Progress in Asian Social Psychology, Vol. 1 (Singapore: Wiley, 1997), 135–46.

  7 The Stories We Live By

  1. A. Gatton, ‘Twin Towers “survivor” a lonely imposter’, Herald Sun (14 September 2008).

  2. J. E. LeDoux, ‘Brain mechanisms of emotion and emotional learning’, Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 2 (1992), 191–7.

  3. R. Brown and J. Kulik, ‘Flashbulb memories’, Cognition, 5 (1977), 73–99.

  4. S. Galea, J. Ahern, H. Resnick, D. Kilpatrick, M. Bucuvalas, J. Gold et al., ‘Psychological sequelae of the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York City’, New England Journal of Medicine, 346 (2002), 982–7.

  5. G. Vaiva, F. Ducrocq, K. Jezequel, B. Averland, P. Lestavel, A. Brunet and C. R. Marmar, ‘Immediate treatment with propranolol decreases posttraumatic stress disorder two months after trauma’, Biological Psychiatry, 54 (2003), 947–9; R. K. Pitman, K. M. Sanders, R. M. Zusman, A. R. Healy, F. Cheema, N. B. Lasko, L. Cahill et al., ‘Pilot study of secondary prevention of post-traumatic stress disorder with propranolol’, Biological Psychiatry, 51 (2002), 189–92.

  6. R. M. Henig, ‘The quest to forget’, New York Times Magazine (4 April 2004), 32–7. Also Leon Kass, former chair of the President’s Council on Bioethics is quoted as saying that such a pill would be a ‘morning-after pill for just about anything that produces regret, remorse, pain or guilt’. N. Levy, Neuroethics: Challenges for the 21st Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

  7. The 9/11 Faker, Channel 4 (September 2008).

  8. D. Parfitt, ‘Divided minds and the nature of persons’, in C. Blakemore and S. Greenfield (eds), Mindwaves (Oxford: Blackwell, 1987), 19–26; C. Priest, The Prestige (New ed., London: Gollancz, 2005).

  9. J. Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding, ed. P. H. Nidditch (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1690/1975), Book 2, Chapter 27.

  10. L. J. Rips, S. Blok and G. Newman, ‘Tracing the identity of objects’, Psychological Review, 113 (2006), 1–30.

  11. B. Hood and P. Bloom, ‘Children prefer unique individuals over perfect duplicates’, Cognition, 106 (2008), 455–62.

  12. B. Hood, N. L. Gjersoe and P. Bloom, The Development of Mind–Body Dualism through Childhood. Poster presented at the Society for Research into Child Development Biannual Conference, (2009), Boston, USA.

  13. O. Sacks, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 1987), 108.

  14. M. S. Gazzaniga, J. E. Bogen and R. W. Sperry, ‘Some functional effects of sectioning the cerebral commissures in man’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 48 (1962), 1765–9.

  15. M. S. Gazzaniga, personal communication.

  16. D. P. McAdams, The Stories We Live By: Personal Myths and the Making of the Self (New York, NY: Guilford Press).

  17. J. Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1949).

  18. A. Greenwald, ‘The totalitarian ego: Fabrication and revision of personal history’, American Psychologist, 35 (1980), 603–18.

  19. B. R. Forer, ‘The fallacy of personal validation: A classroom demonstration of gullibility’, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 44 (1949), 118–23.

  20. D. H. Dickson and I. W. Kelly, ‘The “Barnum Effect” in personality assessment: A review of the literature’, Psychological Reports, 57 (1985),367–82.

  21. Theophrastus, The Characters of Theophrastus, trans. J. M. Edmonds (London: William Heinemann (1929).

  22. R. R. McCrae and O. P. John, ‘An introduction to the five-factor model and its application’, Journal of Personality, 60 (1992), 329–61.

  23. U. Schimmack, P. Radhakrishnan, S. Oishi, V. Dzokoto and S. Ahadi, ‘Culture, personality, and subjective well-being: Integrating process models of life-satisfaction’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82 (2002), 582–93; L. A. Jensen-Campbell, R. Adams, D. G. Perry, K. A. Workman, J. Q. Furdella and S. K. Egan, ‘Agreeableness, extraversion, and peer relations in early adolescence: Winning friends and deflecting aggression’, Journal of Research in Personality, 36 (2002), 224–51; D. D. Danner, D. A. Snowdon and W. V. Friesen, ‘Positive emotions in early life and longevity: Findings from the nun study’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80 (2001), 804–13; M. R. Barrick, M. K. Mount and R. Gupta, ‘Meta-analysis of the relationship between the Five Factor model of personality and Holland’s occupational types’, Personnel Psychology, 56 (2003), 45–74.

  24. K. M. Sheldon, R. M. Ryan, L. J. Rawsthorne and B. Ilardi, ‘Trait self and true self: Cross-role variation in the Big-Five personality traits and its relations with psychological authenticity and subjective well-being’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73 (1997), 1380–93.

  25. J. M. Darley and C. D. Batson, ‘From Jerusalem to Jericho: A study of situational and dispositional variables in helping behavior’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 27 (1973), 100–119.

  26. S. E. Taylor, Positive Illusions: Creative Self-deception and the Healthy Mind (New York, NY: Basic Books, 1989).

  27. E. Langer, ‘The illusion of control’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32 (1975), 311–28.

  28. J. Kruger and J. Burrus, ‘Egocentrism and focalism in unrealistic optimism (and pessimism)’, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 40 (2004), 332–40.

  29. Q. Wang, ‘Autobiographical memory and culture’, Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, Unit 5 (May 2011), http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/orpc/vol5/iss2/2.

  30. Q. Wang, ‘Earliest recollections of self and others in European American and Taiwanese young adults’, Psychological Science, 17 (2006), 708–714.

  31. Q. Wang, ‘Relations of maternal style and child self-concept to autobiographical memories in Chinese, Chinese im
migrant, and European American 3-year-olds’, Child Development, 77 (2006), 1794–1809.

  32. K. Nelson and R. Fivush, ‘The emergence of autobiographical memory: A social cultural developmental theory’, Psychological Review, 111 (2004), 486–511.

  33. Q. Wang, M. D. Leichtman and K. I. Davies, ‘Sharing memories and telling stories: American and Chinese mothers and their 3-year-olds’, Memory, 8 (2000), 159–77.

  34. F. C. Bartlett, Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1932), 296.

  35. ‘The man with ten personalities’, Time (23 October 1978), www.astraeasweb.net/plural/milligan-1978.html.

  36. R. Carter, Multiplicity: The New Science of Personality (New York, NY: Little, Brown and Co. 2008).

  37. B. Waldvogel, A. Ullrich and H. Strauburger, ‘Sighted and blind in one person. A case report and conclusions on the psychoneurobiology of vision’, Nervenarzt, 78 (2007), 1303–9 (in German).

  38. Katherine Morris, personal communication.

  39. P. Gebhard, ‘Fetishism and sadomasochism’, in J. H. Masserman (ed.), Dynamics of Deviant Sexuality (New York, NY: Grune and Stratton, 1969).

  8 Caught in the Web

  1. Personal witness account from the mother of Peter Moskos retrieved from his blog, P. Moskos, ‘Crowd stampede at Netherlands WWII ceremony’, Cop in the Hood website (5 May 2010), www.copinthehood.com/2010/05/crowd-stampede-at-netherlands-wwii.html.

  2. N. Christakis, ‘The hidden influence of social networks’, TED talk (May 2010), www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U-tOghblfE.

  3. For an overview see T. Gilovich, D. Keltner and R. E. Nisbett, Social Psychology (New York, NY: W. W. Norton, 2006).

  4. N. A. Christakis and J. H. Fowler, ‘The spread of obesity in a large social network over 32 years’, New England Journal of Medicine, 357:4 (2007), 370–79.

  5. J. H. Fowler, J. E. Settle and N. A. Christakis, ‘Correlated genotypes in friendship networks’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108 (2011), 1993–7.

  6. P. Ekman, ‘Lie catching and micro expressions’, in C. Martin (ed.), The Philosophy of Deception (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).

  7. J. Sundén, Material Virtualities (New York, NY: Peter Lang, 2003), 3.

  8. L. E. Buffardi and W. K. Campbell, ‘Narcissism and social networking web sites’, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34 (2008), 1303–14.

  9. Results of a survey of 3,000 British parents especially commissioned to mark the launch of a TV series, Tarrant Lets the Kids Loose, on the Watch channel: Taylor Herring, ‘On the subject of traditional careers’, Taylor Herring website (6 October 2009), www.taylorherring.com/blog/index.php/tag/traditional-careers.

  10. Association of Teachers and Lecturers (UK), press release (March 2008), www.news.bbc.co.uk/l/hi/7296306.stm.

  11. Nielsen, ‘What Americans do online: Social media and games dominate activity’, Nielsenwire website (2 August 2010), http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/what-americans-do-online-social-media-and-games-dominate-activity.

  12. Nielsen, ‘Nielsen and McKinsey form joint venture to help companies use social media intelligence for superior business performance’, Press release (14 June 2010), www.mediainsight.nl/media/nm_incite_pressrelease.pdf.

  13. M. Ito et al., Hanging Out, Messing Around and Geeking Out, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011).

  14. Ofcom, The Communications Market Report United Kingdom: A Nation Addicted to Smartphones (London: Ofcom, 4 August 2011), http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/market-data-research/market-data/communications-market-reports/cmr11/uk.

  15. R. Epstein, ‘The myth of the teen brain’, Scientific American Mind (April 2007).

  16. M. Gardner and L. Steinberg, ‘Peer influence on risk-taking, risk preference, and risky decision-making in adolescence and adulthood: An experimental study.’ Developmental Psychology, 41 (2005), 625–635.

  17. R.B. Cialdini, R.J. Borden, A. Thorne, M.R., Walker, S. Freeman, and L.R. Sloan, ‘Basking in reflected glory. Three Football Field Studies.’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34 (1976), 366-375.

  18. K. Quinn, ‘Anonymous online tweets: It’s just bullying in 140 letters’, Age (21 February 2011).

  19. F. Swain, ‘Susan Greenfield: Living online is changing our brains’, New Scientist (3 August 2011).

  20. D. Bavelier, C. S. Green and W. G. Dye, ‘Children, wired: For better and for worse’, Neuron, 67 (2010), 692–701.

  21. D. Bishop, ‘An open letter to Baroness Susan Greenfield’, BishopBlog website (4 August 2011), http://deevybee.blogspot.com/2011/08/open-letter-to-baroness-susan.html; see also T. McVeigh, ‘Research linking autism to internet use is criticised’, Guardian (6 August 2011), www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/aug/06/research-autism-internet-susan-greenfield.

  22. J. Cohen, ‘The rise of social media is really a reprise’, in J. Brockman (ed.), Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think? The Net’s Impact on Our Minds and Future (New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 2011).

  23. ‘The professor, his wife, and the secret, savage book reviews on Amazon’, Guardian (20 April 2010).

  24. A. Jeffries, ‘A sensor in every chicken: Cisco bets on the internet of things’, Read Write Web website (2010), www.readwriteweb.com/archives/ cisco_futurist_predicts_internet_of_things_1000_co.php.

  25. d. m. boyd, ‘Streams of content, limited attention: The flow of information through social media’, presentation at ‘Web2.0 Expo’, New York, NY (17 November 2009).

  26. E. Pariser, The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You (New York, NY: Penguin, 2011).

  27. E. Pariser, ‘Beware online “filter bubbles”’, TED Talk, TED website (March 2011), www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles.html.

  28. A. M. McCright and R. E. Dunlap, ‘The politicization of climate change and polarization in the American public’s views of global warming 2001–2010’, Sociological Quarterly, 52 (2011), 155–94.

  29. J. Bollen, B. Gonçalves, G. Ruan and H. Mao, ‘Happiness is assortative in online social networks’, Artificial Life, 17 (2011), 237–51.

  30. M. D. Conover, J. Ratkiewicz, M. Francisco, B. Gonçalves, A. Flammini and F. Menczer, ‘Political polarization on Twitter’, Proceedings of International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media 2011 (http://truthy.indiana.edu/site_media/pdfs/conover_icwsm2oll_polarization.pdf).

  31. B. Gonçalves, N. Perra and A. Alessandro Vespignani, ‘Modeling user activity on Twitter networks: Validation of Dunbar’s number’, PLoS ONE, 6:8 (2011): e22656, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022656.

  32. S. Baron-Cohen, ‘1000 hours a year’, in J. Brockman (ed.), Is the Internet Changing the Way You Think? The Net’s Impact on Our Minds and Future (New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 2011).

  33. I. P. Pavlov, Conditioned Reflexes (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1927).

  34. J. B. Watson, ‘Psychology as the behaviorist views it’, Psychological Review, 20 (1913), 158–77; B. F. Skinner, The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis (New York, NY: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1938).

  35. R. Montague, Why Choose This Book? How We Make Decisions (New York, NY: Dutton, 2006).

  36. J. Olds, ‘Pleasure center in the brain’, Scientific American, 195 (October 1956), 105–116.

  37. L. Sharpe, ‘A reformulated cognitive-behavioral model of problem gambling: A biopsychosocial perspective’, Clinical Psychology Review, 22 (2002), 1–25.

  38. ‘South Korean couple starved child while raising virtual baby’, CNN News (2010).

  39. M. McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 1964).

  40. S. Tuckle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2011).

  41. S. Morris, ‘How South West News got its divorce scoop in Second Life’, Guardian (14 November 2008).

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nbsp; 42. P. Bloom, ‘First person plural’, Atlantic Magazine (8 November 2008).

  43. C. Cuomo, C. Vlasto, C. and D. Dwyer, ‘Rep. Anthony Weiner: “The Picture Was of Me and I Sent It”’, ABC News website (6 June 2011), http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rep-anthony-weiner-picture/story?id=13774605.

  44. National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, Sex and Tech: Results from a Survey of Young Teens and Adults (Washington, DC: National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 10 December 2008), www.thenationalcampaign.org/sextech/PDF/SexTech_Summary.pdf.

  45. J. M. Albright, ‘How do I love thee and thee and thee: Self presentation, deception, and multiple relationships online’, in M. T. Whitty, A. J. Baker and J. A. Inman (eds), Online Matchmaking (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), 81–96.

  46. S. Lipkins, J. Levy and B. Jerabkova, ‘Sexting … Is it all about power?’, Real Psychology website (n.d.), http://realpsychology.com/content/tools-life/sextingis-it-all-about-power.

  47. ‘Evil clown is a scary success’, Orange News (13 April 2010), http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Evil_clown_is_a_scary_success; J. Dibbell, ‘A rape in cyberspace: How an evil clown, a Haitian trickster spirit, two wizards, and a cast of dozens turned a database into a society’, Village Voice (23 December 1993).

  Acknowledgements

  This was a difficult book to write for a number of reasons. It covers a vast array of different areas that have a long history dating back to the dawn of human self reflection. I expect that it will annoy many for failing to fully acknowledge all those that have gone before who have tackled this issue and for leaving out critical points or not considering all variations of the arguments. That would have been an impossible book to read, let alone write. I have tried to synthesize an account that brings this vast volume of work into an easily understandable format with one simple claim. I believe I have distilled what are the main issues that are relevant to cognitive neuroscience.

  The most difficult aspect of writing the book was that it forced me to confront my own self illusion and the way I have lived my life. It made me uncomfortably aware of my own weaknesses, vanity, insecurity, lack of integrity, lack of cohesion and all the other negative things that few of us admit, but that a self illusion can conceal. It is a thesis that does not, and will not, sit easily with those who regard their self as real. However, I do believe that questioning the nature of our self on a regular basis is a necessary process to get the most out of life.