Selfie: How the West Became Self-Obsessed

by Will Storr

Our brains invent stories like this because they want to make us feel we’re in control of our thoughts, feelings and behaviour. The guesses the interpreter makes might be right. But they might just as easily be wrong. ‘When we set out to explain our actions, they are all post-hoc explanations using post-hoc observations with no access to nonconscious processing,’ writes Gazzaniga. Any inconvenient facts that don’t fit with the interpreter’s story are ignored or suppressed. ‘That “you” that you’re so proud of is a story woven together by your interpreter module to account for as much of your behaviour as it can incorporate, and it denies and rationalizes the rest.’ All this means that ‘listening to people’s explanations for their actions is interesting but often a waste of time.’