Hidden Beliefs That Shape Our Lives

During the years of therapy, Jean slowly amassed enough courage to leave her abusive husband. In a tremendous act of bravery, she finally—with the help of friends and family—escaped. After a few glorious months of freedom, Michael moved in. Michael was worse. These heartbreaking stories are all too common. The sorrowful stories of victimhood leave us dumbfounded. Are they just prone to bad luck or is there something more sinister motivating poor choices? Many of our behaviors have a foundation in hidden beliefs. These are beliefs that we unconsciously hold that quietly work their magic motivating maladaptive behaviors that slowly destroy our lives.

​The pattern is not confined to abusive domestic relationships, we reach the crest, escaping the past, the future looks bright, and then we foolishly jump right back into despair. Beneath consciousness, we have hidden beliefs pushing us back to the mire that disrupts peace, spoils plans, and destroys relationships.

Beliefs create a framework for interpreting experiences and responding. We don’t feel experience; we feel our interpretation of experience. Beliefs give stability to events. We create a hypothesis to explain everything. The meaning we give events forms the beliefs; and the beliefs form the meaning. Both meaning and belief supporting the other, building an impenetrable wall of self-deceit. We lean on a complex construction of beliefs to explain the world.

Key Definition:

Hidden Beliefs refers to the idea that individuals can hold subconscious or implicit beliefs that influence their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors without their conscious acknowledgment. These hidden beliefs may stem from early childhood experiences, cultural conditioning, or societal influences, and they can shape perceptions and decision-making processes without individuals fully recognizing their presence.

​Introduction: Understanding Unconscious Beliefs

Definition and Nature of Unconscious Beliefs

Unconscious beliefs, deeply ingrained within the psyche, exert a profound yet often imperceptible influence on our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. These deeply held assumptions about ourselves, the world, and others operate outside of conscious awareness, residing within the recesses of our minds.

Leonard Mlodinow, an American theoretical physicist, wrote:

“To gain a true understanding of human experience, we must understand both our conscious and our unconscious selves, and how they interact. Our subliminal brain is invisible to us, yet it influences our conscious experience of the world in the most fundamental of ways: how we view ourselves and others, the meanings we attach to the everyday events of our lives, our ability to make the quick judgment calls and decisions that can sometimes mean the difference between life and death, and the actions we engage in as a result of all these instinctual experiences” (Mlodinow, 2013).

Hidden Beliefs Influence Thoughts, Emotions, and Behaviors

Unconscious beliefs, while operating outside of conscious awareness, exert a powerful influence on our daily lives. They act as internal filters, shaping how we perceive and interpret the world around us. For example, an individual with an unconscious belief that they are unworthy of love may subconsciously sabotage their relationships, leading to repeated patterns of rejection. Similarly, an individual with an unconscious belief that the world is a dangerous place may constantly feel anxious and on guard, even in safe environments. These deeply held beliefs, though often hidden from conscious awareness, exert a profound influence on our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, shaping our experiences and influencing our overall well-being.  

Understanding the nature of unconscious beliefs is crucial for personal growth and self-awareness. By exploring the origins and impact of these hidden assumptions, we can begin to identify and challenge those that are limiting or self-defeating. This process of self-discovery can empower individuals to break free from the constraints of unconscious beliefs and create a more fulfilling and authentic life.

See Unconscious Mind for more on this topic

Origins of Unconscious Beliefs

The origins of unconscious beliefs lie deeply within our early childhood experiences. As infants and young children, we are constantly observing and interpreting the world around us. Our parents, caregivers, and significant others play a crucial role in shaping our initial perceptions and beliefs. The messages we receive from these individuals, both explicit and implicit, deeply influence our developing sense of self and our understanding of the world.  

For example, if a child repeatedly hears messages like “You’re so clumsy!” or “You’ll never amount to anything,” these messages can become internalized as unconscious beliefs. These beliefs can then influence a child’s behavior, leading them to avoid challenges, fear failure, and ultimately, fulfill the self-fulfilling prophecy of being clumsy or unsuccessful.

Furthermore, cultural influences and societal norms significantly shape the formation of unconscious beliefs. The values, beliefs, and expectations that prevail within a particular culture can deeply influence an individual’s worldview and self-perception. For example, cultural emphasis on individualism or collectivism, traditional gender roles, and societal attitudes towards success and failure can all contribute to the development of specific unconscious beliefs.

An Ongoing Process

It’s important to remember that the formation of unconscious beliefs is an ongoing process. Throughout our lives, new experiences, relationships, and social interactions continuously shape and refine our existing beliefs. Richard Brodie wrote that we go through “different levels of learning heuristics” in our lives, each level building upon the previous in “a kind of pyramid.” Stepping from one level of the pyramid to the next requires “not just learning a different subject, but jumping to a whole new manner of learning, and in fact a whole new way of looking at the world” (Brodie, 2009).

Recognizing Associations

Recognized associations between cause and effect assist with predicting, preparing and even manipulating the future. Hidden beliefs are more foundational to are actions than overtly proclaimed beliefs; many of these constructions—associations of cause and effect—function undetected, spurring emotion and motivating action, we are just along for the ride.

We gratefully embrace comforting beliefs. If an explanation feels good, we latch onto it and fight against any refuting evidence. We don’t want to the disrupting evidence to wrench the enabling belief from our biased hands.  Unconscious beliefs work a little different. They might not even be comforting. Our minds still devote great energy to keeping misguided beliefs alive. Bubbling beneath the surface, faulty beliefs trigger emotions, and drive actions that may conflict with our goals.

The Psychological Mechanisms Behind Unconscious Beliefs

Cognitive Biases

Cognitive biases are systematic patterns of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment, which often result in illogical inferences or distorted thinking. They are mental shortcuts or heuristics that our brain uses to process information quickly, but they can lead to errors in our perceptions, memory, and decision-making. These biases are deeply embedded in our cognitive framework and can influence our beliefs and attitudes without our conscious awareness.

For instance, confirmation bias, which is the tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information in a way that confirms our pre-existing beliefs, can strongly shape our unconscious beliefs. If we have a deeply held belief, we are more likely to notice information that supports it and ignore or discount evidence that contradicts it. Similarly, the availability heuristic, where we judge the likelihood of events based on how easily examples come to mind, can skew our perception of reality. If we frequently hear about certain types of events, such as violent crimes, we may overestimate their prevalence and form unconscious beliefs about the dangers around us.

These cognitive biases are not just minor errors in judgment; they play a fundamental role in shaping our worldview and can perpetuate stereotypes, prejudices, and irrational fears. They operate beneath the surface of our conscious thought, subtly steering our interpretations and reactions in ways that reinforce our existing mental models.

Defense Mechanisms

Defense mechanisms are unconscious psychological strategies used by individuals to protect themselves from anxiety and to maintain a sense of self-esteem and stability. These mechanisms can manifest in various forms, such as repression, denial, projection, and rationalization, and they serve to shield the conscious mind from uncomfortable or threatening thoughts and feelings.

Repression, for example, involves unconsciously blocking out distressing memories or impulses, preventing them from entering conscious awareness. This can lead to the formation of unconscious beliefs that influence behavior and attitudes without the individual being aware of their origins (Murphy, 2022a). Denial, another common defense mechanism, involves refusing to accept reality or facts, thereby protecting oneself from the emotional impact of certain situations. By denying the existence of uncomfortable truths, individuals can maintain unconscious beliefs that are at odds with reality (Murphy, 2023).

Projection is a defense mechanism where individuals attribute their own unacceptable thoughts or feelings to others. This can result in distorted perceptions of others and the world, reinforcing negative or biased beliefs (Murphy, 2022b). Rationalization involves creating logical explanations for behaviors or thoughts that might otherwise be unacceptable, allowing individuals to maintain a positive self-image while holding onto unconscious beliefs that justify their actions.

These defense mechanisms are essential for psychological coping, but they can also lead to the development and reinforcement of unconscious beliefs that shape how we see ourselves and the world. By operating outside of our conscious awareness, they ensure that certain aspects of our inner experiences remain hidden, influencing our behavior and attitudes in ways that we may not fully understand.

Implicit Memory

Implicit memory refers to a type of memory that operates without conscious awareness, influencing behaviors, thoughts, and perceptions through past experiences that we do not actively recall. Unlike explicit memory, which involves the deliberate recollection of information, implicit memory is more about the unconscious influence of previous experiences on current actions and reactions.

For example, procedural memory, a subtype of implicit memory, allows us to perform tasks such as riding a bike or typing on a keyboard automatically, without consciously thinking about each action. Similarly, priming, another form of implicit memory, involves the exposure to a stimulus influencing the response to a subsequent stimulus, often without conscious recognition of the connection.

Implicit memory plays a significant role in shaping our unconscious beliefs by subtly guiding our preferences, biases, and emotional responses based on past experiences. For instance, if an individual had a negative experience with a particular group in the past, this implicit memory can influence their attitudes and behaviors towards that group in the future, even if they cannot explicitly recall the specific event that shaped their feelings.

The workings of implicit memory highlight how deeply ingrained and automatic our unconscious beliefs can be. These memories are stored and retrieved without our conscious effort, continuously shaping our perceptions and interactions with the world in ways we may not be fully aware of. Understanding the impact of implicit memory on our beliefs can provide valuable insights into the hidden mechanisms that drive our thoughts and behaviors.

Manifestations of Unconscious Beliefs in Daily Life

An individual’s entire perceptive world is build around the beliefs they integrated during the dawning moments of their lives. These early moments give a child the framework to interpret the dynamic and exciting world surrounding them.

Jeremy Clifton and his colleagues explain, “dynamically direct attention: organize, simplify, filter, and fill in information; and guide action” (Clifton et al. 2019).

​We experience the narratives formed around unseen beliefs as reality. Accordingly, when someone holds a vastly different view, we are troubled that they can be so wrong. Our primary beliefs are a significant force contributing to political polarization. We feel strongly therefore our reactionary behavior is justified; but it isn’t. We feel strongly because a misconstrued interpretation based on hidden beliefs. The unconscious belief motivates narratives, creating a catastrophe out of an otherwise mundane event. These pesky beliefs motivate emotions that demand action.

Hidden Beliefs Manifest in Every Aspect of Our Lives

Patterns in Decision Making

Hidden beliefs exert a powerful, yet often subtle, influence on our decision-making processes. These deeply ingrained assumptions operate below the surface of conscious awareness, shaping our perceptions, guiding our choices, and influencing the outcomes we experience. For example, an individual with an unconscious belief that they are “unlucky” may consistently make decisions that inadvertently sabotage their success. They might avoid taking risks, procrastinate on important projects, or easily give up when faced with challenges, all of which reinforce their belief in their own “bad luck.”  

Furthermore, unconscious beliefs can influence our decision-making by creating cognitive biases (Murphy, 2022). A Heuristic “ignores part of the information, with the goal of making decisions more quickly, frugally, or accurately than more complex methods” (​​​Gigerenzer & Gaissmaier, 2011, p.454).

These biases, such as confirmation bias (the tendency to seek out information that confirms existing beliefs) or the availability heuristic (overestimating the likelihood of events based on how easily they come to mind),can distort our judgment and lead us to make suboptimal choices. For instance, someone with an unconscious belief that the world is a dangerous place may constantly focus on negative news stories, leading them to overestimate the likelihood of experiencing harm and making decisions based on fear rather than logic.  

By understanding how hidden beliefs shape our decision-making patterns, we can begin to identify and challenge these limiting assumptions. This self-awareness can empower us to make more conscious and informed choices, leading to more fulfilling and successful outcomes.

Influence on Interpersonal Relationships

Hidden beliefs exert a profound influence on our interpersonal relationships, often shaping our interactions, communication styles, and the quality of our connections with others. For example, an individual with an unconscious belief that they are unworthy of love may subconsciously sabotage their relationships by pushing others away, fearing rejection. They may be overly critical of their partners, engage in self-sabotaging behaviors, or struggle to trust and open up to others.

Furthermore, hidden beliefs about others can significantly impact our interactions. If we hold unconscious beliefs that people are inherently untrustworthy or that others are out to harm us, we may approach relationships with suspicion and defensiveness. This can lead to misinterpretations, misunderstandings, and difficulties in building genuine intimacy.

By becoming aware of our hidden beliefs about ourselves and others, we can begin to understand how these assumptions shape our interactions and create challenges in our relationships. This self-awareness can empower us to challenge these limiting beliefs and cultivate more authentic, fulfilling, and meaningful connections with the people around us.

See Interpersonal Styles for more on this topic

Impact on Professional Behavior

Hidden beliefs exert a significant influence on professional behavior, often shaping our career choices, work ethic, and interactions with colleagues. For example, an individual with an unconscious belief that they are not deserving of success may consistently self-sabotage their career by avoiding challenging projects, procrastinating, or underperforming in interviews. This may manifest as a pattern of self-fulfilling prophecies, where their actions inadvertently confirm their belief that they are incapable of achieving their professional goals.

Stereotypes

Furthermore, hidden beliefs about others can significantly impact our workplace interactions. If we hold unconscious biases or stereotypes about colleagues based on their gender, race, or background, it can lead to discrimination, prejudice, and a lack of inclusivity within the workplace.

Hastie and Dawes explain:

“The most troublesome characteristic of these racial, gender, and religious stereotypes is that they automatically evoke emotional reactions that affect our behavior toward members of the category. Once we’ve classified a person into a category with negative associations, we may not be able to help ourselves from reacting negatively to him or her” (Hastie, & Dawes, 2010).

For example, unconscious biases can influence hiring decisions, performance evaluations, and opportunities for advancement, creating an unfair and inequitable work environment.

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By becoming aware of our hidden beliefs and their impact on our professional behavior, we can cultivate more self-awareness, challenge limiting assumptions, and create a more positive and fulfilling work experience for ourselves and others. This can involve practices such as self-reflection, seeking feedback from trusted colleagues, and engaging in ongoing professional development to broaden our perspectives and challenge our assumptions.

Anxiety and Depression

Beck’s cognitive triad, a core concept in cognitive therapy, posits that depression stems from negative beliefs about oneself, the world, and the future. These negative thoughts, often operating unconsciously, can significantly contribute to heightened anxiety and depression (Beckham et al., 1986. p. 566).  

• Negative view of self: Individuals with a negative view of self may believe they are worthless, incompetent, or unlovable. These beliefs can lead to low self-esteem, feelings of inadequacy, and a constant sense of self-criticism. This constant internal negativity can trigger anxiety and contribute to a downward spiral of negative emotions.  
• Negative view of the world: A negative view of the world involves perceiving the environment as hostile, threatening, or unfair. This can lead to feelings of fear, mistrust, and apprehension. Individuals may constantly anticipate negative outcomes, leading to chronic worry and anxiety.
• Negative view of the future: A pessimistic outlook on the future, characterized by hopelessness and despair, can significantly contribute to depression. Individuals may believe that their situation will never improve, that they are doomed to fail, or that there is no hope for a better future. This hopelessness can lead to feelings of apathy, lack of motivation, and an overall sense of despair.

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By identifying and challenging these negative thought patterns, individuals can begin to reframe their perspectives, reduce anxiety, and improve their overall emotional well-being.

A few harmful beliefs:

• The world is dangerous
• Relationships are hurtful
• I am unlovable
• Everybody should be nice to me
• Nothing I do can make a difference

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Many of these beliefs are more than a cute suggestion of how to act but are a primal world beliefs, deeply embedded in personality and character.

Hidden Beliefs are Stubborn

Seymour Epstein wrote:

“People will often do whatever they can to maintain their belief systems, which are the maps by which they navigate the world. Without a model of what the self and the world are like, of what is true and not true, and of what is right and wrong, a person’s life would collapse into chaos and overwhelming anxiety” (Epstein, 1998).

We need beliefs to stabilize experience. However, not every belief system is productive.

​The strength of the unseen force then subsequently restricts conscious processing, suppressing contradicting information, and sabotaging healthy behaviors, continuing to engage in future destroying action, hurting relationships, endeavors and self-confidence.

We All Have Some Destructive Beliefs

We all have a few destructive beliefs—maybe one of these, maybe something else. These beliefs are part of our reality. Consequently, we heavily invest in protecting them. We internalized explanations for many reasons. Some ideas are passed down, neatly packaged from social learning, other beliefs provided a protective escape from harsh realities. The hidden belief, at some point, helped explain difficult events—failure, rejection, unpredictability. Soothing the soul, the belief is embraced. Rigid belief systems protect against uncertainty. They became the hypothesis for experience; they became reality.

Without discernment, flawed notions convolute thinking. They intrude on rational explanations. We base actions on false premises, remaining invested in the security that the sameness provides. All things the same, the self strives to be consistent.

​We examine new experience from the foundations of the past. This consistency, when beliefs formed to combat difficult pasts, lead to self-damaging choices in the present. We act in ways to support the hidden beliefs, creating a reality that is self-fulfilling strengthening the unshakable belief.

Identifying and Addressing Unconscious Beliefs

Reflection and Awareness

Hidden belief remain hidden because we don’t take time to explore the hidden corners of our psyche. We unconsciously act on auto-pilot first then confabulate reason to narrate our behavior that aligns it with recognized self-concepts. Reflective practices that examines conflicts of behavior begins to unveil some of the hidden parts of ourselves. At first, insights emerge slowly, as we fight through multiple layers of beliefs and distorted realities; but if we continue with healthy reflection, the obscured emotions, thoughts and behaviors begin to march into the open with a continuous flow. Growth, slow at first, picks up speed, inviting illuminating lights on the dark corners of our souls.

Don and Martha Rosenthal wrote:

“Skepticism has a place in the service of the spirit. It asks us to challenge our most cherished beliefs, particularly the ones that tell us we are in danger” (Rosenthal & Rosenthal, 2016).

We need that pause, backing away from immediate behavioral reaction to emotional pushes from hidden beliefs. While emotions are powerful motivators, their guidance isn’t always perfect. We need to act from a wise mind, examining motivations for faulty underlying beliefs.

Therapy and Counseling

Therapy and counseling offer invaluable tools for uncovering hidden beliefs that may be interfering with our lives. These therapeutic settings provide a safe and supportive environment for individuals to explore their inner world and gain insights into the unconscious patterns that may be driving their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

Through techniques such as free association, dream analysis, and guided imagery, therapists can help individuals access and explore the deeper layers of their psyche. This process can bring to light unconscious beliefs, biases, and assumptions that may be contributing to difficulties in areas such as relationships, career, and personal well-being.

Furthermore, therapy provides a space for individuals to challenge and reframe these limiting beliefs. By working with a therapist, individuals can develop healthier thought patterns, learn new coping mechanisms, and cultivate more self-compassion and acceptance. This process of self-discovery and transformation can empower individuals to break free from the constraints of their unconscious beliefs and live more authentic and fulfilling lives.

Therapy Styles that Address Unconscious Beliefs

Here are five therapy styles that can help clients discover hidden beliefs interfering with their lives:

• Psychodynamic Therapy: This approach delves into unconscious thoughts and feelings, exploring past experiences and unresolved conflicts that may be influencing current behaviors and beliefs. Techniques like free association and dream analysis help uncover hidden patterns and underlying motivations.
• Psychoanalysis: A more intensive form of psychodynamic therapy, psychoanalysis aims to bring unconscious material to conscious awareness through techniques such as free association, dream analysis, and transference (the unconscious redirection of feelings and desires from one person to another).
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): While primarily focused on identifying and modifying negative thought patterns, CBT can also help uncover core beliefs that underlie these thoughts. By exploring the origins and impact of these beliefs, clients can learn to challenge and reframe them.
• Schema Therapy: This approach focuses on identifying and addressing deeply ingrained negative beliefs and patterns (schemas) that develop in childhood and continue to influence behavior in adulthood.
• Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy: This therapy uses practices like mindfulness meditation can increase self-awareness and help individuals become more attuned to their thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations. This increased awareness can bring unconscious beliefs and assumptions to the surface, allowing for greater insight and understanding.

Albert Ellis’s ABC Model

We don’t need to rest on a Freudian couch to discover destructive hidden beliefs but professional help with a competent therapist may help. We can purposely slow the mind and reflect on our emotional outbursts and the surrounding triggers, gaining deeper insights that we previously missed. 

Albert Ellis taught an ABC model to address the faulty beliefs. His method is based on Activating Events (A), Beliefs associated with Activating event (B) create the Consequential Emotion (C). When the beliefs are irrational, our emotions are out of line with the reality of the experience.

See ABC Therapist Worksheet.

Mindfulness and Meditation

Mindfulness and meditation practices can be powerful tools for uncovering hidden beliefs that may be interfering with our happiness. Here’s how:  

• Increased Self-Awareness: Mindfulness cultivates heightened awareness of our thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations as they arise in the present moment. By observing these internal experiences without judgment, we can begin to identify recurring patterns, such as negative self-talk, anxious ruminations, or habitual avoidance behaviors. These patterns often reflect underlying hidden beliefs about ourselves and the world.
• Identifying Limiting Beliefs: As we become more attuned to our inner world through mindfulness, we may notice that certain thoughts or emotions consistently arise in specific situations. For example, feeling anxious before social gatherings might stem from an underlying belief that we are not likable or interesting. By observing these patterns, we can begin to identify the hidden beliefs that may be driving them.
• Challenging Negative Thought Patterns: Mindfulness practices can help us detach from negative thought patterns and observe them with a sense of detachment. This allows us to question the validity of these thoughts and challenge their underlying assumptions. For example, if we notice ourselves constantly thinking “I’m not good enough,” we can begin to question the evidence for this belief and explore alternative, more positive perspectives.
• Cultivating Self-Compassion: Mindfulness practices emphasize self-compassion, which involves treating ourselves with kindness, understanding, and acceptance. By cultivating self-compassion, we can begin to break free from the grip of self-criticism and negative self-beliefs.

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By incorporating mindfulness and meditation practices into our daily lives, we can gain deeper insights into our inner world, identify and challenge limiting beliefs, and cultivate a more compassionate and accepting relationship with ourselves. This increased self-awareness can pave the way for greater happiness, fulfillment, and well-being.

Associated Concepts

• Thoughts, Behaviors, and Emotions: These three primary functions of the human psyche interact, forming our response to experience, and impacting surrounding environments.
• Social Learning: This theory developed by Albert Bandura suggests that people learn through observing others’ behavior, attitudes, and outcomes of those behaviors. This theory emphasizes the role of modeling and imitation in learning, as well as the influence of reinforcement and punishment.
• Personal Constructs: Personal constructs are subjective beliefs used to interpret the world. Developed by George Kelly, they influence emotions, memories, and future evaluations.
• Crystal Park’s Meaning Making Model: This model describes the process of assigning meaning to events to lessen conflict between experience and our global understanding and beliefs about the world and self.
• Cognitive Interpretations: Cognitive interpretations refer to the mental processes through which individuals perceive, analyze, and make sense of the information they encounter. In the context of psychology and cognitive science, cognitive interpretations encompass the various ways in which individuals interpret and attribute meaning to stimuli, experiences, and situations.
• Psychosexual Stages of Development: This model refers to the five stages of personality development proposed by Sigmund Freud: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. According to Freud, during each stage, an individual’s libido is focused on a different erogenous zone, and the successful completion of each stage is essential for healthy personality development.
• Primal World Beliefs: These beliefs, also known as core beliefs or basic assumptions, refer to fundamental beliefs that shape a person’s perception of themselves, others, and the world. These beliefs are often formed early in life and are deeply ingrained. They influence how individuals interpret and respond to various situations.

A Few Words by Psychology Fanatic

Sometimes I long for the psyche that prevailed in my early adventures into the adult world. Everything made much more sense. My hidden beliefs operated without the interferences of knowledge. Over the decades, I have slowly discovered more and more beliefs deeply embedded in my being, operating in the darkness, powerfully shaping my thoughts, feelings and emotions.

Often I wonder, if in those magnificent epiphanies of discovery, I am just replacing one hidden belief with a new one. Perhaps, this is just the process of learning, with each new belief becoming a little more adaptive, lifting us one more notch on the ladder towards true enlightenment. Of course, this progression is not a given. Many hidden beliefs stay buried. Protective mechanisms feverishly keep spreading more and more layers of dirt over the nasty demons destroying our lives. Instead of growing, moving toward enlightenment, age just entrenches our lives into more and more maladaptive behaviors, each designed to protect the original foundation of hidden beliefs we constructed early in our lives.

We may erroneously hope that opening up hidden beliefs is a passage to the perfect world of uninterrupted happiness; but that world doesn’t exist. Self-discovery isn’t the doorway to pain free living. However the treasured discoveries of hidden beliefs may improve the circumstances of our lives and the world around us. Consequently, we can pass greater blessing on to our progeny that they can expand and pass to their children.

Last Update: November 19, 2025

References:

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Brodie, Richard (2009). Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme. Hay House Inc. ISBN-10: 1401924689
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Clifton, J., Baker, J., Park, C., Yaden, D., Clifton, A., Terni, P., Miller, J., Zeng, G., Giorgi, S., Schwartz, H., & Seligman, M. (2019). Primal World Beliefs. Psychological Assessment, 31(1), 82-99. DOI: 10.1037/pas0000639
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Epstein, Seymour (1998). Constructive Thinking: The Key to Emotional Intelligence. Praeger. ISBN-10: 027595885X; APA Record: 1998-06495-000
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​​​Gigerenzer, G., & Gaissmaier, W. (2011). Heuristic Decision Making. Annual Review Of Psychology, 62, 451-482. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-psych-120709-145346
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Hastie, Reid; Dawes, Robyn M. (2010). ‎Rational Choice in an Uncertain World: The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making. SAGE Publications, Inc; Second edition. ISBN-10: 1412959039; APA Record: 2010-02957-000
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Mlodinow, Leonard (2013). Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior. Vintage; Illustrated edition. ISBN-10: 0307472256
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Murphy, T. Franklin (2022). Exploring Cognitive Heuristics: Cognitive Shortcuts in Decision Making. Psychology Fanatic. Published: 2-11-2022; Accessed: 2-16-2025. Website: https://psychologyfanatic.com/cognitive-heuristics/
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Murphy, T. Franklin (2022a). Understanding Repression: How the Mind Protects Itself. Psychology Fanatic. Published: 9-8-2022; Accessed: 2-16-2025. Website: https://psychologyfanatic.com/repression/
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Murphy, T. Franklin (2022b). Exploring Projection: How We Shift Blame onto Others.Psychology Fanatic. Published: 1-31-2022; Accessed: 2-16-2025. Website: https://psychologyfanatic.com/projection/
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Murphy, T. Franklin (2023). Defense Mechanism of Denial: Essential Knowledge for Psychological Well-being. Psychology Fanatic. Published: 9-29-2023; Accessed: 2-16-2025. Website: https://psychologyfanatic.com/denial-defense-mechanism/
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Rosenthal, Don; Rosenthal, Martha (2016). Learning To Love: From Conflict To Lasting Harmony. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 2nd edition. ISBN-10: 1523363274
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