Monday, August 10, 2015

How we know what isn’t so by Thomas Gilovich (Book Report)

How we know what isn’t so by Thomas Gilovich is a book that make you look at the world in a different light. What you though your beliefs in certain aspect of life are really not as they seem. We as humans will still believe in them even despite evidence of the contrary. We try to make sense of the overwhelming amount of information that is always changing in the world so we develop our own biases and stereotypes. We think this will help, but in reality it distorts what is right in front of us. Gilovich discuses topics of psychological powers, new age medicine and the belief in the effectiveness of questionable interpersonal strategies.

 On phenomenon that is discussed is self-handicapping. This is “ our attempts to manage how others perceive us by controlling the attributions they make for our performance.”(Gilovich, 1991) I found this very interesting. I have done this to my self when having a bad day.  Putting blame on outside sources to justify how I may not be performing at my best. To me this is a self-coping mechanism to boost my own moral or to make sure others don’t think badly of me. I never thought about this process until now. After reading this book I will think more carefully on the conclusion I draw and the assumption I make about different situation that happen in world around me.


No comments:

Post a Comment