A lot of harm comes about because people ignore the consequences of their behavior on others. Experimental evidence suggests that people might even willfully ignore consequences so that they can act selfishly without a ‘bad conscience’. In essence, such people ‘kid themselves’. If I care about the consequences of my acts on others, I should not ignore them. Upon reflection, people may discover this inconsistency. De-biasing people may thus be an effective tool to prevent harm. We examine this idea experimentally. We find that inviting subjects to describe their aims and means makes them more likely to inform themselves and ultimately act more pro-socially.
