The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement. (2011)

“People … make up stories to explain their own actions even when they have no clue about what is happening inside. The most powerful among us swat away doubt and choose upsides  because not having answers feels so uncomfortable and potentially threatening.

David Brooks, senior editor at THE WEEKLY STANDARD, contributing editor at NEWSWEEK. Formerly a reporter and editor at THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, he’s had articles in THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE WASHINGTON POST and other publications.

People overestimate their ability to understand why they are making certain decisions. They make up stories to explain their own actions even when they have no clue about what is happening inside. Worse yet, the most powerful among us swat away doubt and choose upsides precisely because not having answers feels so uncomfortable and potentially threatening.

“What makes The Social Animal the most satisfying and important book I’ve read in a very long time is that Brooks so brilliantly and evocatively explains why we’ve gone so far off course in this country, attributing it not to bad policies but to human failings we haven’t begun to recognize, much less acknowledge,” comments Harvard Business Review blogger Tony Schwartz in his review ‘We Don’t Know What We Don’t Know’.

“Instead of drawing on our rational faculties to more deeply understand our interior impulses and motivations, we too often use our prefrontal cortex to rationalize, justify, minimize and explain away the unconsciously driven actions we’ve already taken.

“In short, we have an infinite capacity for self-deception. Or, as Brooks puts it, ‘People overestimate their ability to understand why they are making certain decisions. They make up stories to explain their own actions even when they have no clue about what is happening inside.’

“Worse yet, the most powerful among us have a tendency to bloviating certainty – swatting away doubt and choosing up sides precisely because not having answers feels so uncomfortable and potentially threatening. Opinions, in turn, become polarized and rigid.

“What Brooks argues for, and embodies in his writing, is something he calls ‘epistemological modesty’ – substituting humility for hubris.”

Access the book here: The Social Animal