A Topical Question: Where does Hubris Come From?

I think we all know what hubris is, dictionary.com defines hubris as excessive pride or self-confidence; arrogance. The Wikipedia page says hubris describes a personality quality of extreme or foolish pride or dangerous overconfidence. And in ancient Greek hubris referred to actions that violated natural order, or which shamed and humiliated the victim, sometimes for the pleasure or gratification of the abuser.

We shouldn't have to work too hard to think of an excessively hubristic individual that occupies the world stage at the moment. But the point of this post is not the extremes of hubris (one might say intractable, or pathological hubris), but rather more common everyday examples of hubris, and where hubris comes from in general. And yes, I have a personal interest in this as a result of some of my experiences with my own hubris.

The short answer is hubris is an example of something called egocentric bias. And perhaps the most interesting and complex thing about bias is it's typically completely unconscious. And we all have various forms of unconscious bias, it's simply part of being human: where there is an unconscious mind there is also bias.

It seems to me there are fairly widespread misconceptions about the unconscious part of our human mind. And the most basic of these is that the unconscious is accessible. And of course it is to some extent, as in dreams and myths. Perhaps Joseph Campbell, the well known professor famous for his work on mythology, would have said The Power of Myth is in its ability for us to better understand our unconscious human mind.

So perhaps it's accurate to say the unconscious is partially accessible. Accessibility is, after all, the point of psychoanalytic and other therapies that intend to reach into the unconscious mind and find and resolve those "stuck parts" that repeat counterproductive thoughts and behaviors over and over in never ending loops. These therapies pursued with diligence can be successful to varying degree, which itself speaks to the relative inaccessibility of our unconscious mind.

The central idea that came out of the Age of Enlightenment was that the capacity for reasoning bestows on us the power to control our destiny. This is, of course, a very attractive idea that continues to predominate the Western perspective. But more recently brain science is discovering the degree to which Freud was correct in his most basic idea that our behaviors are governed mostly by the unconscious. A wonderful book that delves into the implications of this is "Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than EQ" by Daniel Goleman.

So then where does hubris come from? We can all have it, and probably have to varying degrees and times in our lives. There is a somewhat surprising answer, it is luck, combined with the unconscious.

I came across a great Youtube channel recently named Veritasium (a made up word) where the author covered the degree to which luck plays in success and hubris very nicely. The title of this video: Is Success Luck or Hard Work? It's 12 minutes, and worth every one of them:

For those who would like to learn more about unconscious bias I'd also like to recommend a book on this fascinating topic, Everyday Bias: Identifying and Navigating Unconscious Judgements in Our Daily Lives, by Howard Ross, who is probably as expert on this as anyone.

Everyday Bias: Identifying and Navigating Unconscious Judgments in Our Daily Lives