BELIEF: AN OWNER’S MANUAL
ARTICLE 7
A CLOSER LOOK AT THE FUNDAMENTAL NEEDS
THAT MOTIVATE BELIEF
If beliefs are cognitive tools we use to help achieve our goals, evaluating our beliefs requires knowing what our goals are. As you may remember, in Article 4 I suggested that we are driven to believe by the (often subconscious) expectation that our beliefs will satisfy one or both of our deepest needs.
In this article, I’ll be describing those needs in greater detail, giving you a chance to identify the needs that draw you to your beliefs, and encouraging you to think about whether you treat your beliefs in ways that help you get what you want from them.
NEEDS THAT ENCOURAGE ADOPTION OF INFORMATIVE BELIEFS
There are, as noted in Article 4, two fundamental needs that induce us to believe. The first of these is the need to experience and grapple with reality. On the most primordial level, we experience and grapple with reality out of a desire to survive. We want to breathe, to drink, to eat, to clothe ourselves, to shelter ourselves from the elements, to build supportive relationships, and to create circumstances that ensure our safety, security, and well-being. Where possible, we also want to protect ourselves from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. And we want the same things for those we care about.
Our longing to experience and grapple with reality also inspires our desire to reach out and embrace the universe. When we view ourselves and those we love as secure, we want something more. In the ideal, we want to experience all there is to be experienced, to know all there is to be known, to master all there is to be mastered, and to love all there is to be loved.
Our desire for experience leads us to take vacations; to travel to natural and architectural wonders; to wander the halls of museums and to be awed by their contents; to attend concerts, plays, and sporting events; to hike, to ski, to dive; to ride horses, motorcycles and mountain bikes; to eat exotic foods; to read great literature; to listen to great music; to watch engaging movies and TV shows. It tempts us to cheat on our spouses.
Our desire to know – that is, to possess facts and understanding – leads us to study the physical sciences from quantum theory to cosmology and the social sciences from cognitive psychology to sociology; to read books and periodicals that deal with issues we find interesting; to study logic, epistemology, aesthetics, ethics, and social philosophy; to read history with a critical eye; to observe fashion skeptically; and to consume political discourse cautiously.
Our desire for mastery (in the sense of competence) leads us to do our best to surmount the challenges we encounter in our personal and professional lives and to take joy in doing so. If we surmount those challenges too easily, our desire for mastery leads us to seek additional challenges to overcome, from grilling the perfect steak, to bicycling a century, to writing elegant and touching essays and poems, to creating new ways to understand realty and express that understanding. And if we don’t find available challenges to be sufficiently amusing, we create our own.
Our desire to love leads us to both appreciate the universe as it is and to help that which we love to realize its fullest potential. In this sense of the term, to love a flowering plant is to provide the conditions in which it blossoms most beautifully and to allow oneself to delight in its bloom. To love a fellow human, in this sense of the term, is not only to delight in whatever he or she may be, but to nurture his or her inclination to be physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually healthy: attentive, intelligent, reasonable, responsible, self-aware, creative, disciplined, joyous, ethical and loving.
WE’RE BIASED TOWARD VIEWING BELIEFS AS INFORMATIVE
We experience most of our beliefs as “informative”– that is, as motivated by the desire to grapple with reality. When asked why we believe something, our answers are likely to reflect the notion that we believe it because it’s true. And if those who ask us that question respect us, they’re likely to accept that answer.
In fact, our view of beliefs is built around two implicit assumptions: (1) that we believe as we do because our beliefs accurately describe reality and (2) that the truth of those descriptions leaves us no choice but to believe.
Of course, some take pride in their capacity to believe that which seems unreasonable. For example, some Christians interpret Ephesians 2:8 as describing the capacity for unreasonable belief as a “gift of God.” Yet even those who celebrate their ability to believe in the absence of proof are likely to rejoice when concrete evidence confirms their faith. Think of the ecstasy of believers when a statue of the Virgin weeps or a child casts her crutches to the ground. Or the unending hope, even among those who celebrate the gift of grace, that scientific evidence will abolish all doubt about relics (Harris, 2005, pp. 44-46).
NEEDS THAT ENCOURAGE ADOPTION OF REASSURING BELIEFS
While many of our beliefs are motivated by our desire to understand, manage and appreciate reality, beliefs I refer to as “reassuring” are motivated by our desire to feel good about ourselves and our circumstances. The things we do to satisfy that desire have been investigated by those seeking understanding of psychological defenses (Draguns, 2004), self-deception (Goleman, 1985), superstition (Feingold, 1977), positive illusions (Taylor, 1989), scapegoating (Glick, 2005), dissonance reduction (Tavris & Aronson, 2007), the practice of science (e.g., Kuhn, 1962; Mahoney, 1976; and Mitroff, 1974), the distinction between science and pseudoscience (Popper, 1963), the structure of human consciousness (e.g., Feingold, 2015; Helminiak, 1996; and Lonergan, 1957), and the penchants of those described as “committed” to beliefs (Mahoney, 1976a). Despite their differing perspectives, these fields converge on two conclusions: (1) that many beliefs are driven by the desires to see ourselves as wise, virtuous, competent, powerful, loving, and connected to something all-embracing and all-important, and to view our virtues and the realities that sustain them as enduring, and (2) that, in the interest of buttressing those beliefs, we systematically deceive ourselves.
More specifically, that literature suggests that, in the interest of protecting beliefs we find reassuring, we
• refuse to accept distressing realities
• convince ourselves of reassuring falsehoods
• deny (and otherwise deceive ourselves about) our feelings
• violate the laws of logic
• selectively attend to supportive data and arguments
• selectively ignore challenging data and arguments
• interpret vague or ambiguous data as supportive
• selectively cast doubt on the accuracy and/or relevance of challenging information
• employ ad hominem arguments to attack the credibility of those who challenge our treasured beliefs
• overlook the motives and failings of those who support our beliefs
• accept supportive evidence and logic of dubious quality while rejecting challenging logic and evidence of higher quality
• refuse to examine the assumptions that undergird our beliefs while subjecting the assumptions of competing views to exacting critiques
• selectively remember supportive events
• distort memories in ways that increase their support for beliefs we find reassuring
• invoke catalytic narratives to explain away undeniable failures
Examples of such penchants are ubiquitous. The unfailingly faithful husband who, upon learning he’s contracted a sexually transmitted disease, refuses to consider the possibility that his wife “cheated” on him, is refusing to accept a distressing reality. The woman who denies her obvious anger and insists that others are angry with her is deceiving herself regarding her feelings. The optimist whose unrealistically rosy view of the past leads him to repeat mistakes is likely refusing to accept distressing realities, selectively attending to supportive data, interpreting ambiguous data as supportive, and/or distorting or selectively remembering supportive events. The woman who says, “My lover dumped me without a word of warning. I knew he was a loser from the start!” is distorting data to make an uncomfortable reality easier to accept.
An example of selective attention to supportive data in combination with inattention to challenging data can be found in a story that Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz used to epitomize anti-Semitism. According to Dershowitz, A. Lawrence Lowell, president of Harvard during the 1920s, justified quotas against Jews because “Jews cheat.” When an alumnus pointed out that non-Jews also cheat, Lowell reportedly replied, “You’re changing the subject. I’m talking about Jews.” (Dershowitz, 2003)
EFFECTS OF VIEWING REASSURING BELIEFS AS INFORMATIVE
Beliefs distorted by biases such as those described above are unworthy of trust. Imagine that you take your recently purchased sports car to the dealership where you bought it because it occasionally slips out of third gear. It happens infrequently, but it’s occurred twice when you were accelerating onto an interstate. In both cases the engine revved well past its redline and cars in the lane you were merging into had to slam on their brakes to avoid rear-ending you. You’ve seen references to a service bulletin describing that problem on the Internet and the service manager at another dealership told you he’d read it. However, the repair requires a degree of expertise that no one in your local dealership has – a problem the local dealership’s service manager doesn’t want to face.
As such, the service manager refuses to authorize the repair unless he experiences the problem during his diagnostic drive – a brief outing during which he barely touches the accelerator, thus avoiding information he might find distressing. He denies that the service bulletin exists, suppressing an unpleasant memory and/or refusing to accept a fact he finds distressing. He tells you that such problems are common in cars with manual transmissions and not worth worrying about, convincing himself of a reassuring falsehood. And the fourth time you return with the same problem he insinuates that you’re making things up, defending himself with an ad hominem argument. Do you trust him to take care of this problem? Of course not! The service manager’s beliefs, shaped by his need to feel good about himself, provide little if any actionable intelligence.
Ask an active alcoholic why he believes that everything but alcohol is ruining his life. He’ll never say, “I avoid placing the blame for my problems where it belongs – on alcohol – because doing so would make me uncomfortable!” Instead, he’ll insist that his life is falling apart because he’s unlucky or unfairly treated. And he’ll insist that what he believes is true. In doing so, he refuses to accept a distressing reality (the demonstrable consequences of his drinking) and convinces himself of a reassuring falsehood (his poor luck and/or unfair treatment).
Ask a devotee of The Law of Attraction why she believes that everything that happens to her is caused by images in her mind. She won’t say, “I cling to my belief in The Law of Attraction because it feels good to think I have power over things that I really can’t control.” Instead, she’ll insist that the Law of Attraction is a profound truth. In doing so, she convinces herself of a reassuring falsehood by violating the laws of logic, interpreting vague or ambiguous data as supportive of her belief, and selectively attending to and recalling supportive events.
Admittedly, the biases and errors of these beliefs are more obvious than the biases and errors of the average reassuring belief. But the difference is one of quantity, not kind. Of course, it’s easier to detect these biases and errors in others’ beliefs than in one’s own, and easier to detect those biases and errors in beliefs with which you disagree than in beliefs you hold dear.
REASSURING BELIEFS CAN BE ADDICTIVE
As you can see, reassuring beliefs cannot be trusted to help us deal with reality. But treating reassuring beliefs as informative can not only mislead us; it can addict us.
It happens this way. Imagine that you’re someone who comforts herself with reassuring beliefs when things go badly. And imagine that those reassuring beliefs lead you to use ineffective strategies to achieve your goals. To the extent you’re guided by those beliefs, things are likely to get worse. And if, when things get worse, you comfort yourself by committing yourself more deeply to your reassuring beliefs, your downhill slide is likely to accelerate.
Imagine, for example, that you’re someone who finds solace in The Law of Attraction and, as such, feels certain that you can succeed by doing nothing more than believing wholeheartedly that the success you crave is already yours (Byrne, 2006). Believing that, you devote a great deal of time, effort, and money to books, DVD’s, recordings, seminars, and groups to help you fill your mind with the “proper” images. If those tactics prove ineffective and you become increasingly disappointed with your life, you’re all too likely to “double down” by intensifying your efforts to fill your mind with the “correct” thoughts. And so on.
Of course, not all reassuring beliefs have the potential for addiction. If viewing myself – however unrealistically – as a crackerjack putter makes me feel good, that fantasy is probably harmless. Illusions that don’t impair my ability to deal with things that matter aren’t likely to be problematic.
EFFECTS OF VIEWING INFORMATIVE BELIEFS AS REASSURING
On the other hand, we’re capable of treating informative beliefs as if they were reassuring. Some people, for example, view the belief that “spiritual” pursuits and attitudes can contribute to happiness as nothing more than a comforting fantasy. Although the objective value of love, kindness, empathy, charity, and compassion is supported by extensive research (e.g., (Haidt, 2006), (Frederickson, 2013), (Johnson, 2013)), in the eyes of cynics, such things are poppycock. Dismissing such objective realities as subjective fantasies can lead to the view that relationships, at their best, are temporary alliances motivated by self-interest; and that only wealth, status and symbols of success make life rewarding.
That view, it turns out, is a poor guide to happiness. And when wealth, status, and shallow relationships fail to satisfy, it’s likely to lead believers to seek more and more of that which they find unsatisfying. Those who die with the most toys don’t necessarily win.
THE CONSEQUENCES OF CONFUSION
Finally, when we’re unclear about what we want from beliefs, we may value them because they’re sometimes informative and sometimes reassuring. But there’s a problem with valuing them on that basis.
We treat informative beliefs differently than reassuring beliefs. When we’re trying to be objective, we’re likely to do an imperfect job. None the less, we probably try to avoid defensiveness, bias, and logical errors. And, when others point out those flaws in our arguments, we’re likely to at least make a show of listening. On the other hand, when we’re trying to reassure ourselves, we’re likely to give our defenses and biases free rein and to throw logic to the winds. And we’re likely to blind ourselves to those penchants and to close ourselves to criticism.
When we’re unclear about whether we’re looking to our beliefs to provide information or reassurance, we’re all too likely to treat them inconsistently. And if we treat our beliefs with a haphazard mixture of objectivity and bias, they’re likely to do a poor job of providing either information or reassurance.
As such, I suggest we consider using and assessing our important beliefs more methodically. If, upon examination, it turns out that we look to a belief to provide both information and reassurance, I suggest that we view it, evaluate it, and, if we choose to do so, use it as two separate beliefs – one of which is informative and one of which is reassuring.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Why is it so important to be aware of the needs that motivate our beliefs? Because if we want to know whether a belief provides the guidance we desire, we need to know what we desire.
Before we can determine whether a tool is right for the job, we need to know what the job is. And before we can determine whether a belief can do what we want, we need to know what we want from it. Do we want it to help us achieve a specific goal (That is, is it an informative belief?) or do we want it to help us feel more secure and better about ourselves (That is, is it a reassuring belief?)?
Thus, when analyzing a belief, the first question we need to ask is, “Do I look to this belief for information, reassurance, or both?” If we clearly look to it for information, we should strive to use it in a way that maximizes the accuracy and utility of the information it provides. When evaluating it, we should do our best to focus on how well it provides the information we expect from it.
If, on the other hand, we clearly look to a belief for reassurance, we should strive to use it in a way that maximizes the reassurance it provides while minimizing its potential to mislead and addict us. When evaluating it, we should do our best to focus on how well it provides the reassurance we hope for as well as the damage we do when, inattentive to its dangers, we allow it to guide our actions.
If we look to it for both actionable information and reassurance, we need to reformulate it as two separate beliefs – one informative and one reassuring – and to utilize and evaluate those beliefs separately.
To help you distinguish between beliefs that promise understanding and competence, on the one hand, and those that promise reassurance, on the other, I’ve formulated a questionnaire that you can find below.
EXERCISE 7A:
INCREASING YOUR AWARENESS OF
THE FUNDAMENTAL NEEDS THAT MOTIVATE YOUR BELIEFS
1. Below find “A Tool to Help Identify the Desire(s) that Motivate(s) Your Beliefs.”
2. Identify a few beliefs that guide you in the areas below. (Note that you may be subjecting those beliefs to further examination later in this course.) Suggested areas from which to draw beliefs include:
• where you find joy
• where you find meaning and purpose
• your view of others – especially those whose views differ from your own
• your personal life
• your professional/vocational life
• advice/guidance you offer others
• political positions you advocate
3. Choose two or three beliefs you’re open to examining methodically.
4. Print the appropriate number of copies of the tool.
5. Write each belief in the space containing the sentence stem, “I believe that . . .”.
6. Keeping the pertinent belief in mind, ask yourself how you feel about the issues addressed by each pair of contrasting statements. In each case you may strongly agree or agree with Statement “A,” strongly agree or agree with the Statement “B,” or agree with neither statement. Concurring with Statement “A” reflects a desire for reassurance, while concurring with Statement “B” reflects a desire for competence.
7. When you’ve responded to all of the paired statements, summarize your responses.
a. If you agree or strongly agree with most of the “A” statements, you probably look to the belief in question for reassurance. As such, you should evaluate the belief you’re evaluating as you would a “reassuring” belief.
b. If you agree or strongly agree with most of the “B” statements, you probably look to the belief in question to inform you about reality. As such, you should evaluate the belief you’re evaluating as you would an “informative” belief.
c. If you endorsed about as many “A” statements as “B” statements, you probably look to the belief in question for both reassurance and information. As such, you should evaluate it as two separate beliefs.
8. Record any thoughts, feelings, or questions that arise during this exercise in the space provided.
A TOOL TO HELP YOU IDENTIFY THE DESIRE(S) THAT MOTIVATE(S) YOUR BELIEFS
Belief to be examined: I BELIEVE THAT . . .
RESPOND TO EACH PAIR OF CONTRASTING STATEMENTS BELOW BY:
• CIRCLING “1” IF YOU STRONGLY AGREE WITH STATEMENT A
• CIRCLING “2” IF YOU AGREE WITH STATEMENT A
• CIRCLING “3” IF YOU AGREE WITH NEITHER STATEMENT
• CIRCLING “4” IF YOU AGREE WITH STATEMENT B
• CIRCLING “5” IF YOU STRONGLY AGREE WITH STATEMENT B.
PAIR #1
a. I want this belief to be true.
b. I don’t care whether this belief is true.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #2
a. This belief makes me feel good about myself.
b. This belief doesn’t make me feel good about myself.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #3
a. Believing this makes me a better person.
b. Believing this has no effect on my goodness.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #4
a. This belief helps make me who I am.
b. I would be the same person if I didn’t hold this belief.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #5
a. I would see myself differently if I didn’t hold this belief.
b. I wouldn’t see myself any differently if I didn’t hold this belief.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #6
a. Affirming this belief renders me morally superior to those who’re blind to its truth.
b. Affirming this belief has no effect on my moral standing.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #7
a. Affirming this belief renders me intellectually superior to those who’re blind to its truth.
b. Affirming this belief has no effect on my intellectual standing.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #8
a. Believing this makes me feel comfortable.
b. This belief has no effect on how comfortable I feel.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #9
a. Information that appeared to raise serious questions about this belief would upset me.
b. Information that appeared to raise serious questions about this belief wouldn’t faze me.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #10
a. I do my best to avoid information that might challenge this belief.
b. I don’t avoid information that might challenge this belief.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #11
a. I believe that, when properly implemented, strategies this belief inspires always work.
b. I’m open to the possibility that strategies this belief inspires may fail, even if properly implemented.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #12
a. Strategies this belief inspires only fail when those implementing them lack commitment.
b. Strategies this belief inspires may not work, even in the hands of skilled, dedicated believers.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #13
a. Careful examination of data or arguments that challenge this belief is a waste of time.
b. Careful examination of data or arguments that challenge this belief is worthwhile.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #14
a. If I encountered information that appeared to challenge this belief, I’d do my best to explain it away.
b. If I encountered information that appeared to challenge this belief, I’d consider the possibility that the belief may be flawed.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #15
a. Any argument that challenges this belief must employ inaccurate information or faulty logic.
b. Some of the arguments that cast doubt on this belief may be sound.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #16
a. I’m distressed if others don’t share this belief.
b. It’s OK with me if others don’t share this belief.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #17
a. There’s probably something wrong with those who don’t accept this belief.
b. Even those who’re worthy of my respect and admiration may find it hard to accept this belief.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #18
a. I have no trouble dismissing challenges to this belief if those who share it consider the sources of those challenges biased.
b. I feel obliged to investigate challenges to this belief for myself.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #19
a. Those who challenge this belief should be silenced.
b. Those who challenge this belief should be free to express their views.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #20
a. There’s no point in trying to understand the facts, arguments, values, or perspectives of those who don’t share this belief.
b. Efforts to understand the facts, arguments, values, or perspectives of those who don’t share this belief may be worthwhile.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #21
a. I avoid questioning this belief or considering incompatible beliefs because those I care about would be upset if I did so.
b. The feelings and opinions of those I care about have no effect on what I allow myself to think, say, or believe.
1 2 3 4 5
PAIR #22
a. I would respond to information that could be considered threatening to my belief by rephrasing that belief to make it harder to challenge.
b. I would respond to information that could be considered threatening to my belief by reflecting thoughtfully on that information.
1 2 3 4 5
SUMMARY
TOTAL #1 (STRONG AGREEMENT WITH STATEMENT “A”) CIRCLED:
TOTAL #2 (AGREEMENT WITH STATEMENT “A”) CIRCLED:
TOTAL #3 (AGREEMENT WITH NEITHER STATEMENT “A” NOR STATEMENT “B”) CIRCLED:
TOTAL #4 (AGREEMENT WITH STATEMENT “B”) CIRCLED:
TOTAL #5 (STRONG AGREEMENT WITH STATEMENT “B”) CIRCLED:
CONCLUSION (CIRCLE ONE):
THIS BELIEF IS BEST CONSIDERED (AND EVALUATED AS):
REASSURING
INFORMATIVE
TWO BELIEFS: ONE REASSURING AND ONE INFORMATIVE
REFLECTIONS:
WHAT THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS DID YOU EXPERIENCE WHILE DOING THIS EXERCISE? WHAT QUESTIONS DID IT PROVOKE?
EXERCISE 7B:
INCREASING AWARENESS
OF THE NEEDS
YOU ASSUME YOUR BELIEFS SATISFY
For each of the practice beliefs examined in EXERCISE 7A, above . . .
Reflect on four or five situations in which you suspect that the belief helped shape your thoughts, feelings, or actions.
1) In each situation, do you recall looking to the belief to
a. help you feel more comfortable or confident (e.g., help you feel more informed, competent, powerful, righteous, safe, secure, connected, or valued)?
b. help you contribute to creating, enlarging, or sustaining an ethos, social group, religious group, or political group that supports and values beliefs you find comforting or reassuring . . . or help you feel that you’re doing so?
c. help you understand the situation, decide what to expect, evaluate its vices and virtues, establish goals, or figure out how to get things done?
d. enhance your commitment to openness and objectivity, your ability to deal effectively with reality (including the situation in question), or your devotion to promulgating an ethos that supports and values openness and objectivity?
2) Tally the number of times you looked to the belief for a or b (i.e., the number of times you treated the belief as reassuring) and the number of times you looked to the belief for c or d (i.e., the number of times you treated the belief as informative), and the number of times you looked to the belief for both reassurance and information.
3) Ask yourself how closely the guidance each belief provided matched the guidance you assumed it would provide. If your expectations were unrealistic, what were the consequences? If your expectations had been more accurate, what might you have done differently?
4) What thoughts and feelings did you experience while doing this exercise? What questions did it provoke?
REFERENCES
Byrne, R. (2006). The Secret. New York: Atria.
Dershowitz, A. (2003). The Case for Israel. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Draguns, J. G. (2004). Defense Mechanisms in the Clinic, the Laboratory, and the Social World: Toward Closing the Gaps search, and Clinical Perspectives. In U. Hentschel, G. Smith, & J. G. Draguns, Defense Mechanisms: Theoretical, Research and Clinical Perspectives (pp. 55-75). New York: Elsevier.
Erdelye, M. (1985). Psychoanalysis: Freud’s Cognitive Psychology. New York: Freeman.
Feingold, B. D. (1977). Superstition as a Strategic Research Site for the Investigation of Belief. Doctoral Dissertation: the Pennsylvania State University.
Feingold, B. D. (Spring 2015). The Trouble with Truth. The Torch Magazine, 22-26.
Frederickson, B. (2013). Love 2.0. New York: Penguin Group.
Glick, P. (2005). Choice of Scapegoats. In J. F. Dovidio, P. Glick, L. A. Rudman, & (Eds.), On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years after Allport (pp. 244-261). Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Goleman, D. (1985). Vital Lies, Simple Truths: The Psychology of Self-Deception . New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Haidt, J. (2006). The Happiness Hypothesis. New York: Basic Books.
Harris, S. (2005). The end of faith: religion, terror, and the future of reason. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Helminiak, D. A. (1996). The Human Core of Spirituality: Mind as Psyche and Spirit. Albany, NY: University of New York Press.
Johnson, S. (2013). Love Sense. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Kuhn, T. S. (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lewis, B. (2002). What Went Wrong?: The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East. New York: Oxford University Press.
Lonergan, B. J. (1957). Insight: A Study of Human Understanding . London, UK: Longmans, Green & Co.
Mahoney, M. J. (1976). Scientist as Subject: The Psychological Imperative. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.
Mahoney, M. J. (1976a). The Costs of Commitment. In M. J. Mahoney, Scientist as Subject: The Psychological Imperative (pp. 195-220). Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.
Mitroff, I. I. (1974). The Subjective Side of Science. New York: Elsevier.
Popper, K. (1963). Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientirfic Knowledge. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Tavris, C., & Aronson, E. (2007). Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me). Orlando, FL: Harcourt Books.
Taylor, S. E. (1989). Positive illusions: Creative self-deception and the Healthy Mind. New York: Basic Books.