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The Self Illusion: Why There is No 'You' Inside Your Head [Extract] QUOTES

The Self Illusion: Why There is No 'You' Inside Your Head [Extract] QUOTES

1 " We must believe in free will – we have no choice. Isaac Bashevis Singer "

― Bruce M. Hood , The Self Illusion: Why There is No 'You' Inside Your Head [Extract]

2 " Anonymity to outsiders appears to be the crucial factor when individuals feel that they are not accountable, which leads to greater antisocial behavior. Riots, lynching, and hooliganism are all believed to be examples of mob mentality that are thought to thrive through the process of deindividuation.10 In contrast, the more that we lose anonymity, the more we conform and behave. In one simple study, researchers placed a picture of a pair of eyes on the wall above a collection tin in the coffee room where staff members paid for their beverages.11 For the next 10 weeks, they alternated posting pictures of flowers or watchful eyes above the coffee pot. People were more honest in paying for their beverages when the eyes were posted. Just like the self-conscious Halloween children, we are more honest when a mirror is present to reflect our behavior. When we are made self-conscious, we become more accountable. "

― Bruce M. Hood , The Self Illusion: Why There is No 'You' Inside Your Head [Extract]

3 " There is not one self or multiple selves in the first place. Rather, it is the external world that switches us from one character to another. This idea that we are a reflection of the situations is sometimes called the looking-glass self 9 – we exist as the reflection of those around us. "

― Bruce M. Hood , The Self Illusion: Why There is No 'You' Inside Your Head [Extract]

4 " We learn to interpret, predict, anticipate and negotiate in the playground. Gradually over late childhood and adolescence we increasingly elaborate the narrative of who we are and eventually strike out to become a character differentiated from those who shaped us. "

― Bruce M. Hood , The Self Illusion: Why There is No 'You' Inside Your Head [Extract]

5 " Our self illusion is so interwoven with personal memories that when we recall an event, we believe we are retrieving a reliable episode from our history like opening a photograph album and examining a snapshot in time. If we then discover the episode never really happened, then our whole self is called into question. But that's only because we are so committed to the illusion that our self is a reliable story in the first place. "

― Bruce M. Hood , The Self Illusion: Why There is No 'You' Inside Your Head [Extract]

6 " When did this game of life become so unfair that we blame individuals rather than the circumstances that prevent them from achievement? This is know as the fundamental attribution error in human reason. When other people screw up, it's because they are stupid or losers, but when I screw up it's because of my circumstances. "

― Bruce M. Hood , The Self Illusion: Why There is No 'You' Inside Your Head [Extract]

7 " Most have no memory of self before their second birthday and, even then, the memories from around that time are fragmented and unconnected. It's not that you have forgotten what it was like to be an infant-- you simply were not 'you' at that age because there was no constructed self, and so you cannot make sense of early experiences in the context of the person to whom those events happened. "

― Bruce M. Hood , The Self Illusion: Why There is No 'You' Inside Your Head [Extract]

8 " You only exist as a pattern made up of all the others things in your life that shape you. If you take each away, “you” would eventually cease to exist. This does not mean that you do not exist at all, but rather that you exist as a combination of all the others who complete your sense of self. "

― Bruce M. Hood , The Self Illusion: Why There is No 'You' Inside Your Head [Extract]

9 " This is true for many species. For example, birds of species that flock together have comparatively larger brains to individuals of those species who live more isolated lives. "

― Bruce M. Hood , The Self Illusion: Why There is No 'You' Inside Your Head [Extract]

10 " This daily experience of our self is so familiar, and yet the brain science shows that this sense of our self is an illusion. Psychologist Susan Blackmore makes the point that the word “illusion” does not mean that it does not exist—rather, an illusion is not what it seems. We all certainly experience some form of self, but what we experience is a powerful deception generated by our brains for our own benefit. "

― Bruce M. Hood , The Self Illusion: Why There is No 'You' Inside Your Head [Extract]

11 " Our identity is the sum of our memories, but it turns out that memories are fluid, modified by context and sometimes simply confabulated. This means we cannot trust them, and our sense of self is compromised. Note how this leaves us with a glaring paradox—without a sense of self, memories have no meaning, and yet the self is a product of our memories. "

― Bruce M. Hood , The Self Illusion: Why There is No 'You' Inside Your Head [Extract]

12 " You only exist as a pattern made up of all the others things in your life that shape you. If you take each away, “you” would eventually cease to exist. This does not mean that you do not exist at all, but rather that you exist as a combination of all the others who complete your sense of self. These "

― Bruce M. Hood , The Self Illusion: Why There is No 'You' Inside Your Head [Extract]

13 " The most horrifying idea is that what we believe with all our hearts is not necessarily the truth.” Memory as a Compost Heap We all know that we forget things but to discover that a recollection is completely fabricated is something else. It is shocking because it makes us question our own minds. If we all can vividly remember events that never happened, then this undermines the reliability of memory and ultimately the reality of our self. This is because part of the self illusion is that we know our own minds and recognize our own memories. But we are often mistaken. The "

― Bruce M. Hood , The Self Illusion: Why There is No 'You' Inside Your Head [Extract]