Immune to Reality

The article, “Unnatural Selections” by Barry Schwartz is an inspirational article that shows us all of the default choices that we take for granted in this world. He uses several examples to help give you the overall impression of the article. Along with the examples, Barry creates logic and emotion by the writing style he uses. He creates logic and emotion in his article by using persuasive elements such as evidence and reasoning. Barry Schwartz is a highly known professor of psychology, and has written several books. Therefore, we can be convinced that we are able to trust him as an author. He makes valid points and he does a magnificent job of persuading the readers into believing what he says with his examples.

The irony in the challenges of life is that it helps us build character. But the irony in truth is that often times its right in front of us. Can we all subconsciously be capable of carrying ourselves within a barrier of “truths”? As a poet, writer, and political activist, Audre Lorde’s “The Fourth of July” describes an image of how much her mother rationalizes with certain truths: “As usual, whatever my mother did not like and could not change, she ignored” (222). Growing up in an era of segregation, and coming to terms with the realities of how cruel the world could be; as a result, sharing less than the truth was used as a barrier of protection. Nonetheless, in times of social injustice and racism, some truths come to light surrounded with

In reading "Mistakes were Made but Not by me," multiple accounts are given of traits exhibited by humans that are displayed subconsciously. The authors, Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson, begin by defining these traits and give readers the actual terminology to these characteristics. With various examples being provided to the reading audience they are then able to make a clear correlation between the behaviors displayed and how they may impact not only themselves but others around them. "Mistakes were Made but Not by me" has a theme which is centralized around the two key facets which are cognitive dissonance and self- justification.

There is one human emotion that can paralyse us, lead us to lie both to ourselves and others, to commit actions that we don’t endure, and to cripple any rational thought processes. It is self perpetuating if allowed to get out of control. Its side effects are anger, aggressiveness, fear or reclusiveness. Its symptoms are irrational behaviour, lying, anguish, and lack of self-esteem. It is the strong emotion that can affect our conscience, like an acid drop it corrodes the soul within and in extreme conditions it demolishes one’s life, it is better known as guilt. Guilt is a reoccurring theme in Robertson Davies’ Fifth Business, and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, that is demonstrated by various characters including, Dunstable Ramsay, Paul

When placed in stressful or uncomfortable situations, people often create lies to validate acts of escapism that provide momentary relief from the reality of their problems. This is act is typically known as self-deceiving. In Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, the use of self-deception as a form of escapism is evident in Perry Smith, one of the Clutter murderers. In the book, Perry’s self-deception manifests itself in his delusional dreams, his fatalistic beliefs, and his addiction.

The protagonist holds to his immature beliefs that by looking, acting and maintaining a false façade as a “dangerous character” (Boyle,114) it would bestow on him an the badness he desires.

With descriptive detail, this story not only initiates psychological discussion, it also challenges ideological assumptions.

Immediately after reading Immune to Reality by Daniel Gilbert and Being Zack Morris by Chuck Klosterman, they may at first seem like they have nothing to do with the other. After all, Immune to Reality is written about how the mind “cooks facts” and diverts human attention away from the bad and has it focus on the good, and Being Zack Morris is written about how cliche life really is. Throughout both Gilbert and Klosterman’s pieces a certain type of reality is being constructed. Gilbert’s piece, through many examples of research implies that the reality that people believe to be real, is in turn, not real. Klosterman’s piece alludes to the concept of reality is not real by using real life examples that anybody who has been through high school can relate to. Both Klosterman and Gilbert’s texts are arguably related through the ontological concept of human construct their own version of reality and that reality is not real.

In one experiment, involving various bad smells, it was noted that the participants that had been exposed to a mild-stink or strong-stink smell were more severe in their moral judgements than participants exposed to no bad smell. In all four experiments, the same results were obtained, participants that felt disgust were likely to be more severe in their judgments. This paper concludes that participants who believe in their intuitions were often tricked by outside forces, such as a bad smell. Noting this phenomenon, the paper suggests that self-awareness of these outside factors can help mitigate their effect. However, they also suggest it is not wise to completely remove somatic markers. In one study, the patients were not able to incorporate feelings and sensations into their decision making; as a result, the patients were unable to come to conclusions on any simple subject matter. The paper concludes that it is ok to rely on these intuitions even if they can be easily influenced, but it also says we must be aware of factors that can distort our intuitions. By following this methodology, one can mitigate making biased decisions due to his or her

One must always be weary of the truth because it is quite often manipulated to serve the needs of any person who requires that the truth be on their side. Quite often, the only way to discern the truth from the fiction is by way of a deceptive act, because an act of deception always exposes both its self and the truth to be two quite different things. Nowhere is this more true than in William Shakespeare's, Hamlet. One of the major themes in the play is in fact, deception. This central theme is expressed throughout the play in three major forms: the fear of being deceived, the act of deception, and the ultimate result of the deceptive act. The first facet of the deceptive

The methods by which human beings rationalize their thinking can be explained through many theories and speculations. Two important theories about human thought are explained by Leslie Bell and Daniel Gilbert in their essays “Hard to Get: Twenty-Something women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom” and “Immune to Reality”, respectively. Bell applies the term splitting to explain how the women she spoke with are able to cope with the conflictions they feel over their sexual desires. Splitting is a tool used within psychoanalytic theory to describe a means of dualistic or binary thinking. Similarly, Gilbert coined the phrase psychological immune system to explain human self-rationalization behavior when someone suffers a severe setback. The psychological immune system is a method of protecting the mind from the harsh reality of some events. Both splitting and the psychological immune system approach the idea that human behavior is designed to protect the well being of the mind whether it is through simplification, detachment, or fabrication of the true circumstances.

Throughout several plays and films analyzed in this class, the idea of secrecy and the damage that happens from it is highly involved. Secrecy is the habit or practice of maintaining secrets or maintaining privacy or concealment. This is a key part to many plays and movies because keeping a secret can have severe consequences. Some works that I have analyzed in this class that have this relevant idea are as follows: Buried Child, How I Learned To Drive and Suddenly, Last Summer. All of these works show that hiding the truth and keeping secrets can do damage to other people. This damage can be physically, emotionally or mentally.

Truth is possibly one of the most powerful forces in humanity. Truth has the power to set people free, change lives and end them. Because of this, the truth is usually feared and often concealed. In Susan Griffin’s “Our Secret”, the concealing of the truth become a major theme in the advancement of the plot, and also carries the meaning to the work’s title. The title of “Our Secret” refers to the secrets that the individual characters in the story keep from others reference to the fact that humanity is keeping secrets from itself.

Why does human nature have a tendency to grasp onto information which contains no justified data? William Shakespeare expands on this question, expressing the manners of human nature on believing in untrustworthy sources, throughout his play Hamlet. In the play Hamlet, Shakespeare exposes an individual’s mindset through Hamlet’s perception of human nature analyzed by psychology. Shakespeare illustrates behavioural reasoning in which people believe information without proper justification through Hamlet’s perception in the play.

Most people have told a lie at least once in their life. People, both in reality and in fiction, have been lying through disguises and through their words for centuries. For many, lying and deceiving has become part of their day to day lives. Twelfth Night, one of William Shakespeare’s many famous plays, is a romantic comedy that displays a wide range of topics and themes including this theme of lies and deception. The characters in the play use lies and deceit for several different reasons, some of which are personal gain, revenge, and sometimes purely for entertainment.