The totalitarian ego: Fabrication and revision of personal history.
@article{Greenwald1980TheTE, title={The totalitarian ego: Fabrication and revision of personal history.}, author={Anthony G Greenwald}, journal={American Psychologist}, year={1980}, volume={35}, pages={603-618} }
This article argues that (a) ego, or self, is an organization of knowledge, (b) ego is characterized by cognitive biases strikingly analogous to totalitarian information-control strategies, and (c) these totalitarian-ego biases junction to preserve organization in cognitive structures. Ego's cognitive biases are egocentricity (self as the focus of knowledge), "beneffectance" (perception of responsibility for desired, but not undesired, outcomes), and cognitive conservatism (resistance to…
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