What people say about themselves is also insight into realm of their thinking. Reading many "about me" sections on Orkut, it is interesting to note that everybody has best of opinions about himself/herself. People are aware of their limitations, yet to self, they are also nicest people to people around them. They don't hurt anybody with their words and actions, are good friends, are enjoyable company, and generally speaking good human being. Notwithstanding the fact that each of us knows among his/her friends some who aren't quite what they say they are. Fascinating part is that they are not pretending but genuinely believe so about themselves. A thief would also consider himself/herself good and will have justifications for his/her acts. What it may mean that either everybody is generally good at heart or has potential to be, or everybody is living in an illusion.
Some of the interesting and path breaking studies in psychology:
- Stanford prison experiment (Wikipedia)- what makes people evil
- Milgram's experiment (Wikipedia) - how people obey orders blindly
- Cognitive dissonance experiment - how we lie to ourselves
- Robbers Cave experiment - what brings peace in warring groups