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By Root 1286 0

that his own experiences with marijuana while in college showed all these signs and that the changes in his behavior closely paralleded those described in the thirteen cases. That is, he had become careless in his appearance, irritable, and forgetful; had experienced difficulty concentrating on his studies and paying attention in class; and had developed frequent headaches. Yet at that time, he explained, he succeeded in convincing himself that nothing had changed in his behavior, that his courses had merely become less interesting and meaningful, others were annoying him, and so on. Why? Apparently because his self-image – a cool person, very much in control of himself and his behavior, unaffected by his pot smoking – was so important to him that he was willing to deny his own perceptions and the obvious logic of the situation rather than threaten that image. So effective were his face-saving maneuvers, he explained, that more than five years had to pass before he could accept the truth.

The second case concerns a student who was enrolled in a critical thinking class a few years ago. One of the topics for analysis in the course was abortion. A number of exercises were used to identify the various strengths and weaknesses found in the arguments on both sides of the issue. (For example, the tendency of many on the "pro" side to ignore the question of at what point, if any, the fetus acquires human rights; and the tendency of many on the "anti" side to minimize the emotional harm often caused by having an unwanted baby.) one of the later assignments was to observe a televised debate on abortion between two professors and identify the strengths and weaknesses of their arguments.

This student's written analysis said, in effect, that the "pro" professor's argument had no weaknesses at all and that the "anti" professor's was riddled with weaknesses. The student maintained this position in class discussion even though his classmates found significant strengths and weaknesses in both positions. (In fact, a clear majority gave the edge not to the "pro" professor but to the "anti.") Even after the class listened to a tape of the debate that demonstrated that this student had heard wrong in several important instances, he remained convinced that his analysis was correct. The more the evidence mounted against his position, the more strongly he advanced it. "Not giving in" had become a last-ditch device to save face.

The third case involves a college professor. While reading a book that discussed effective teaching, she encountered a chapter that examined a particular classroom practice and showed how it was not only ineffective but actually harmful to learning. As soon as the approach was identified, she recognized it as one of her own favorite approaches. As she read further into the author's criticism of it (she recounted to me later), she began to feel defensive, even angry. "No," she mumbled to herself, "the author is wrong. The approach is a good one. He just doesn't understand." The professor had nothing rational to base these reactions on – just the impulse to save face. No one else was around. Just herself and the author's words. Yet defending the approach, and saving herself the embarrassment of admitting she didn't know as much as she thought she did, became more important than knowing the truth.

It's a mark of the professor's strength of character that as soon as she recognized what she was doing, she checked the tendency and forced herself to consider the author's arguments calmly and reasonably. Surely the temptation not to do so must have been powerful.

CONTROLLING FACE-SAVING TENDENCIES

The harm face-saving does to critical thinking is significant. By prompting us to misinterpret our perceptions and substitute wishful thinking for reality, it leads us to rationalize. Rationalizing is the very opposite of reasoning; whereas reasoning works from evidence to conclusion, rationalizing works from conclusion to evidence. That is, rationalizing starts with what we want to be so and then selectively compiles