The Ego-Standpoint Bias — the Basis of Self-Deception

We tend to have a more or less hidden bias in favor of our own view or position in various matters, which carries out at each level of the ego-standpoint, individual, family, community, religion, country, etc. as it expands its scope. We tend to see things from our unique viewpoint and not take into account the viewpoint of other stakeholders in the event, situation or interaction.

This bias also works to shield us from our own actions and their consequences. In particular our vital nature is capable of influencing the mind to such a degree that whatever the vital desires can find a justification in the mind. We see this frequently where we see defendants blaming the victim for their bad behaviour, where they claim that the victim’s slow driving caused them to become enraged and shoot the victim; or where the woman’s provocative dress caused them to lose control and sexually assault the woman, etc. etc.

This same bias operates not just on major breaches such as those mentioned above, but in everyday actions such as fulfillment of a desire or failure to carry out a resolution. This acts both as a “sword” and a “shield”. We can attack others for ‘causing’ us to do something that is otherwise wrong, and we can defend ourselves with explanations, excuses and self-justifications so that we believe we are ‘right’ and others are simply ‘wrong’.

The Mother writes: ”It would seem that in the ordinary psychological constitution of man, the almost constant function of the mind is to give an acceptable explanation of what goes on in the ‘desire-being’, the vital, the most material parts of the mind and the subtlest parts of the body. There is a kind of general complicity in all the parts of the being to give an explanation and even a comfortable justification for everything we do, in order to avoid as far as possible the painful impressions left by the mistakes we commit and undesirable movements. For instance, unless one has undergone or taken up a special training, whatever one does, the mind gives itself a favourable enough explanation of it, so that one is not troubled. Only under the pressure of outer reactions or circumstances or movements coming from other people, does one gradually consent to look less favourably at what one is and does, and begins to ask oneself whether things could not be better than they are.”

“Spontaneously, the first movement is what is known as self-defense. One puts oneself on one’s guard and quite spontaneously one wants a justification… for the smallest things, absolutely insignificant things — it is a normal attitude in life.”

“And explanations — one gives them to oneself; it is only under the pressure of circumstances that one begins to give them to others or to another, but first one makes oneself very comfortable; first thing: ‘It was like that, for it had to be like that, and it happened because of this, and…’, and it is always the fault of circumstances or other people. And it truly requires an effort — unless, as I say, one has undergone a discipline, has acquired the habit of doing it automatically — it requires an effort to begin to understand that perhaps things are not like this, that perhaps one has not done exactly what one ought to have done or reacted as one should. And even when one begins to see it, a much greater effort is needed to recognise it… officially.”

“When one begins to see that one has made a mistake, the first movement of the mind is to push it into the background and to put a cloak in front of it, the cloak of a very fine little explanation, and as long as one is not obliged to show it, one hides it. And this is what I call ‘lack of mental honesty.’ “

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Our Many Selves: Practical Yogic Psychology, Chapter 6, Some Answers and Explanations, pp. 198-201