"Mistakes Were Made (but not by me)" - Introduction chapter

"Mistakes Were Made (but not by me)" by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson.

The book is about our natural tendency to justify ourselves, to not admit to our mistakes.


INTRODUCTION


1. As fallible human beings, we all have the impulse to justify
ourselves. If our actions were harmful, immoral, or stupid, we
sometimes do not take responsibility for them.

2. Most people when confronted with evidence that they are wrong,
justify their course of action even more tenaciously.

3. The above happens on a small, personal scale, or a national one (a
president refusing to admit he made a terrible mistake).

4. Self-justification is lying to one self. Making excuses for
oneself. A person may lie to the public for a variety of reasons, but
once he moves into the territory of believing he did a good thing
telling those lies or excuses, he has moved into self-justification.

"Did you fail to report some extra cash income? You're entitled, given all the money that the government wastes on pork-barrel projects and programs you detest. Have you been writing personal e-mails and surfing the Net at your office when you should have been tending to business? Those are perks of the job, and besides, it's your own protest against those stupid company rules, and besides, your boss doesn't appreciate all the extra work you do."

5. The authors do not address the morality or merit of any
particular justification we give to our actions. They are interested
in why we self-justify. Their theory is that we do so in order to
continue seeing ourselves as honest people, not criminals or thieves.

"Whether the behaviour in question is a small thing like spilling ink on a hotel bedspread [and not telling the hotel], or a big thing like embezzlement, the mechanism of self-justification is the same."

The mechanisms of self-justifications range from the small-scale,
harmless stuff to much broader things that seem unfathomable or
crazy.

"Look at ruthless dictators, greedy corporate CEOs, religious zealots who murder in the name of God, priests who molest children, or people who cheat siblings out of a family inheritance: How in the world can they live with themselves? The answer is: exactly the same way the rest of us do." [One self-justification at a time.]

6. Self-justification can be good. It lets us sleep at night. But
indulged in mindlessly, it can "draw us deeper into disaster". The
best strategy is to take responsibility for blunders we cause as soon
as possible, to fess up rather than cover up.