[iamnothere]

> I am interested in the notion or aspect of consciousness that relates to why people behave the way they do, think the way they think, and are not only largely oblivious to it (the idea of examining behavior and the ~motivations behind it) but commonly hostile to it, sometimes extremely so. Or even more interestingly, the ability to easily notice the behavior in others, but utterly incapable of seeing the same thing in oneself.

The book The Elephant In The Brain touches on this. Short version: effective self-deception is the only way to effectively deceive others, as we as a species have developed very finely tuned bullshit detectors. To recognize and acknowledge your own hidden motives is to ensure that you won't accomplish your evolutionary goals (survival/reproduction), so evolution has generally limited people's ability to gain insight into themselves.