William B Swann, Jr reviews ”Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts” Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson. xii + 292 pp. Harcourt, 2007. $25.
There are at least two kinds of deceptive statements. The more common and familiar type (”I did not have sexual relations with that woman”) is made willfully, with the goal of misleading listeners into believing something that the deceiver knows to be untrue. The second sort (”They’re trying to say ‘Did you make a mistake going into Iraq?’ And the answer is ‘Absolutely not.’”) is made when the speaker has persuaded himself that something false is actually true. In Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me), authors Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson focus on this latter category, which involves self-deception. The authors make a compelling case that self-justifications of this sort are especially pernicious, because they allow the person making them to feel better while remaining unaware of what is happening. Thus emboldened, he or she will not only fail to take corrective action but will be prone to make additional mistakes, be untruthful about them and so on. Even if this individual is not the leader of the free world, the results can be catastrophic. MORE
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