New essay! Drawing on a wide range of sources, evidence, and arguments, I argue for a social model of motivated reasoning.

Put simply, the primary reason we convince ourselves of falsehoods in domains like politics, religion, and conspiracy theorising is not that we can’t handle the truth. It’s that holding accurate beliefs is often a losing move in social games involving advocacy, reputation management, and status competition.

I also argue that the “you can’t handle the truth!” model of human psychology is not just mistaken; it is pernicious. It encourages the view that when people accept “harsh” beliefs that they don’t want to be true, they are being rational and truth-seeking—even heroic. In reality, people are often motivated to convince themselves of negative, pessimistic beliefs, and it often takes courage and intellectual virtue to confront positive truths.