“He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world’s believing him. This falsehood of tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.”
—Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Peter Carr from Paris, August 19, 1785
The human brain has a lot of flexibility built into it. In particular, the givens that are around a person are learned, not hardwired.
This learning of givens is a good thing in almost all cases. A given for a person who lives on a tropic isle beach is that if you wake up and walk outside on a typical winter morning, you’ll have an invigorating sea breeze blowing in your face. The given for a person who lives on an arctic beach is … a bit different.
But there is a downside to this flexibility, too. The downside is that the given can become wrong but the thinker is not aware that this has happened. When what a person believes to be true is different than what is really true this is called a delusion.
Delusion is widespread and usually easily correctable. Having delusions is the surprise outcome of using givens to solve everyday problems. Using givens to solve every day problems is fast and comfortable. And as long as the givens are producing acceptable answers there’s no need to check them. A delusion is altered when it butts up against a harsh reality that makes the believer say to himself or herself, “Oh … I got that wrong, didn’t I.” But until that happens, using a delusion remains the quick and easy way to deliver an answer.
Delusion becomes troublesome when bad choices are being made because of it and those bad choices aren’t feeding back to the decider—the decider isn’t getting a harsh reality check.
The lack-of-feedback problem is most noticeable in people who have a lot of power. One story dealing with delusion and harsh reality is that of King Canute, an early ruler of England and Denmark. He asked his courtiers if he could stop an incoming tide by commanding it. Despite their flattering opinions, he failed. This lack-of-feedback is the root of the proverb “Power corrupts.”
The Canute tale is a case of harsh reality ending a delusion but the most enduring stories are about delusions that endure and cause much damage. A contemporary tale of delusion is North Korea and its rulers, the Kims.
Contemporary politicians in democracies are well aware of the delusion problem and this is why they pay so much attention to their polls. This is also why business leaders are constantly watching the bottom line. Both are doing their best to check their thinking against harsh realities.
Delusion is important to modern day decision making because it is so easy to slip into it. And as I pointed out earlier, once a person learns to believe in a given they will continue to believe in that given until a personal harsh reality experience forces the person to abandon it.
A related hazard is hypocrisy—the saying of one thing while believing something else. The occupational hazard of hypocrisy is that it turns into delusion—for most people it is uncomfortable to believe we are liars, so the brain will steadily move a lie towards delusion to relieve the discomfort of hypocrisy. Once the lying becomes delusion it is real hard for the liar to mentally switch gears back to truth-telling.
So if you are dealing with a person who holds a delusion what should you do? You should look for ways to show the believer a harsh reality that undermines their belief, then wait. Give the person a chance to change their mind. The waiting gives the deluded person a chance to change their thinking, to grapple with the harsh reality, and that takes time.
Delusions can be strong or weak. If a delusion is picked up casually it can be lost with little discomfort. However, if a delusion is created in a time of fear or other great stress it can embed deeply in a person’s thinking and it takes a strong harsh reality to root it out.
We all have delusions. Delusions are a surprise result of thinking using givens—which is both valuable and comfortable thinking. We can all lose delusions, we just have to become convinced that they are no longer telling us truths about the world around us.