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Why We Lie to Ourselves

自己欺瞞は脳のバグではなく、機能 — そんな現代心理学の見方。

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We tend to think of lying as something we do to other people. But the most frequent and most successful lies in our lives are the ones we tell ourselves. The job we say we love. The relationship we insist is fine. The book we are sure we will finish next weekend. Self-deception is so pervasive that some psychologists no longer treat it as a flaw. They treat it as a feature. The biologist Robert Trivers argued, decades ago, that we lie to ourselves so that we can lie to others more convincingly. If you genuinely believe your version of events, your face does not betray you, your tone does not waver, and the listener is more easily persuaded. Other researchers, less interested in deception, focus on its softer cousin: positive illusion. Slightly inflated estimates of our abilities, our health, and the loyalty of those around us appear to make daily life more bearable, and may even predict longer lifespans. None of this is permission to lie. It is a humbler observation: that the line between believing what is useful and believing what is true is thinner than we like to admit, and that the human mind crosses it constantly, often without our noticing. The challenge, then, is not to stop lying to ourselves entirely. It is to stay aware that we do.

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  • We tend to think of lying as something we do to other people.表現

    私たちは『嘘をつく』ことを、他人に向けてやることだと考えがちだ。

    〈tend to + 動詞〉= 『〜しがち』。〈think of A as B〉= 『A を B として考える』。

  • Self-deception is so pervasive that some psychologists no longer treat it as a flaw.文法

    自己欺瞞はあまりに普遍的で、もはや欠陥として扱わない心理学者もいる。

    〈so X that Y〉= 『あまりにも X なので Y』、結果構文。〈no longer〉= 『もはや〜ない』。

  • we lie to ourselves so that we can lie to others more convincingly文法

    他人にもっと説得力をもって嘘をつけるために、自分自身に嘘をつく

    〈so that + 主語 + can〉= 『〜できるように』、目的を表す節。

  • less interested in deception, focus on its softer cousin表現

    欺瞞よりも、その穏やかな従兄弟に関心を持つ

    形容詞句の挿入 + 〈cousin〉の比喩。概念間の親類関係を表す上級語法。

  • the line between believing what is useful and believing what is true is thinner than we like to admit文法

    有用を信じることと真実を信じることの境界線は、私たちが認めたいよりも薄い

    〈the line between A and B〉= 『A と B の境界線』、エッセイで対比軸を提示する慣用句。

  • the challenge, then, is not to stop lying entirely. It is to stay aware that we do.文法

    挑戦は、完全に嘘をつくのをやめることではない。それは、私たちがそうしていると気づき続けることだ。

    〈not to + 動詞. It is to + 動詞〉= 対比による論述構造。

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