Quotes from Robert Jervis

Perceptions of the world and of other actors diverge from reality in patterns that we can detect and for reasons that we can understand.

The common saying is "I'll believe it when I see it," but human perception is more accurately characterized as "I'll see it when I believe it." In international politics where expectations of hostility are common, the results are often unfortunate.

Emotions also can justify acts that would otherwise be reprehensible. We are quicker to except the legitimacy of a violent response to an insult or a wrong if it is believed to have arisen spontaneously from the understandable anger that it triggered than if it is seen as the product of calculation. Revenge may be a dish that is best eaten cold, but serv­ers are more willing to accept it if it is hot.

More broadly, most of us believe that we have arrived at many of our deeply held beliefs through careful thought and do not want to recognize that if we had been brought up by different parents, let alone in a different society, our fundamental values and attitudes would be very different.