In fact, we’re so keen to moralize that we take almost every time and place as an opportunity to do so. But we need this book to be a judgment-free zone where we can admit to our bad tendencies and motives without worrying that we’re falling short of our ideals. We need here to see ourselves as we are, not as we’d like to be.

Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson, The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life, Oxford, 2017, p. 61