A thread through the archive
Essays tagged “self-handicapping”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Scott analyzes why multiple groups in America simultaneously claim persecution, identifying psychological motivations behind these claims and warning against the rhetorical trick of presenting oneself as both persecuted underdog and inevitable winner.
Scott uses Calvinist predestination and Tversky's ice-water heart study to show how people confuse correlation with causation and deceive themselves about their own motives.
Scott uses self-handicapping studies to argue that people can hold a biased belief on the surface and an accurate one underneath, much like belief in belief.