11 Reasons Why Your Brain Is A Total Dick

Right, so despite the fact that we're all fat, unphotogenic racists, our brains tend to give us very high opinions of ourselves.

For example, researchers have found that people tend to think of themselves as much nicer than they really are. When people are asked how much money they think they would give to a homeless person or a charity, their estimations (made in good faith) are way above average, and when they are asked what they think everyone else would give, it's often much lower.

What happens in reality is that people tend to give a lot less, if at all. The figure is usually much closer to their estimation for "everyone else".

This can be transferred into lots of different traits. People can often think that they're far more organised, logical or intelligent than most people - generally whichever traits they value the most tend to be the ones they see in themselves.

This probably has something to do with the fact that the brain reacts to thinking about doing something in almost exactly the same way as actually doing it. 

You still get rewarding fuzzy feelings when you imagine yourself giving out sweeties to homeless people, and so your brain almost tricks you into thinking you actually do it.

For this same reason, people are less likely to put their plans in motion if they tell people about them. 

If you go around telling everyone that you're going to learn French, you get pretty much the same reward as telling them that you have learnt French, but without having to actually do it - so you don't bother.