The Thoughts of We

How to be less human is an intriguing book that takes a close look at the nature of human behavior. Its author, Dr. David Gilad, suggests that we can identify early warning behaviors in others and learn from their patterns. People who project confidence, authority, and power are more successful than those who lack these traits. Yet, they also fail more often. In contrast, those who exhibit weakness, vulnerability, and fear are less successful.

People who engage in unethical behavior tend to attribute themselves with less human characteristics. In contrast, people who recall being honest attribute themselves with more human characteristics. In other words, if they’re dishonest, they think they’re less human than they really are. Such self-dehumanization leads to unethical behavior. To find out whether people believe that being less human makes them unethical, Kouchaki and his colleagues asked participants to write about their experiences with honesty and dishonesty. They then divided participants into three groups: a group that wrote about their experiences with lying, a group that wrote about being honest, and a third group that wrote about their evenings spent with honesty and integrity.